Police in Barbados are looking for a lone gunman who carried out the daring robbery on a restaurant and bar at Lower Bay Street, St Michael during which a Guyanese man was shot dead and the female bar owner injured.
Christopher Anthony Griffith called ‘Chrissy’, 26, of Redman Village, St Thomas and a former resident of Pomona Village, Essequibo was shot in the head and pronounced dead at the scene. The woman, Silochani Samuels also of Redman Village, St Thomas and formerly of Meten-Meer-Zorg, is a patient of the Queen Elizabeth Hospital having been shot in her arm and chest. The bullet, which entered her arm, exited her body, while the one in her chest remains there. Her condition is still listed as serious although she is fully conscious and managed to give a statement to the police on Tuesday.
At the time of the incident, the bar, a regular spot for many Guyanese, was filled with patrons. According to reports, after discharging rounds the gunman escaped with an undisclosed amount of money from the cashier and several bottles of a popular rum.
Samuels owns the Hippo Bar and Caribbean Restaurant and Griffith, a carpenter, would frequently assist.
Speaking to this newspaper via telephone from Barbados, Samuels’ daughter, Annie said her mother was conscious, but experiencing pain in the chest. She said doctors have since told them that her mother had a better chance of survival if the bullet was left where it was. She told this newspaper that her mother was in a lot of pain since the bullet had bruised her lungs and caused some damage to a rib.
Pointing out that the gunman did not get a large sum of cash, Annie disclosed that last month two or three masked gunmen had barged into the place and made demands for money. They managed to get less than Bds$500.
Following that incident, she said the police had told them to be patient as they conducted their investigations and that the area would be patrolled. However, Annie said that the patrols only lasted for two days.
“A lot of petty crimes happen down there but there is always a cover up because it’s a tourist country. They don’t want people to know what is going on here but even the tourist getting rob,” she added.
Annie said the robbers were targeting the Guyanese-owned businesses and nothing ever came out of the cases.
She expressed disappointment at the police’s approach to the incident.
Meanwhile Griffith’s sister Abiola said that the gunman did not take the gold jewellery or watch that her brother was wearing and left some of the cash behind when he fled.
She said that from what she was told, when the masked gunman entered the store, Samuels thought it was a joke and proceeded to pull off the mask, at which point she was shot. Abiola, who also resides in Barbados, said it was unclear how her brother was shot as he was at the other end of the bar at the time. She, like Annie, said that the area where the bar was located was filled with criminal elements.
Griffith’s mother Edith Latchman was distraught when Stabroek News contacted her at her Essequibo home. The woman said it was only last October that he came back to Guyana to see her because she was sick. She said it hurt her to know that his life was taken away so brutally especially since he was not a drunkard or sick. She said she last spoke with him on Friday afternoon and he had told her that he would soon be making another trip home.
She described him as a loving person.
A post-mortem examination is expected to be done after which the body will be flown to Guyana for burial.
Griffith leaves to mourn his parents George and Edith, four siblings and an 18-month-old son, Nathaniel.
