Lawyer stares death in the face pursuing bandit

A Berbice lawyer stared death in the face after a bandit he was pursuing because he robbed his client pointed a gun at him.

Ramesh Rajkumar, whose law office is at St Ann Street, New Amsterdam, was approaching the business premises shortly after 10am on Thursday when he observed members of his staff and other persons pointing towards a man who was cycling in an easterly direction.

He immediately gave chase in his vehicle, pursuing the suspected robber into the eastern half of Church Street, two streets away, where two house lots in, Rajkumar managed to trap the man along the concrete fence forcing him off his bicycle.

“I stopped my vehicle and was exiting it when the man pointed a gun. I was less than four feet away.

He pointed it straight to my face. I looked into his eyes, they were opened wide. I saw confusion and determination. He appeared as though he was going to shoot,” the attorney recalled.

The lawyer said that many things flashed through his mind as he slid unto the driver’s seat and crouching down, he held onto the steering wheel and accelerated.

“A short distance away I sat up and on looking into my rearview mirror I saw him running behind with the gun. I subsequently exited the street, drove to Central Police Station where I made a report, Rajkumar said.

According to the attorney, “It was a terrible experience; I was close to death.”

Meanwhile, following the report ranks responded quickly and went to  a swampy area in the vicinity of the Region Six Democratic Council buildings at Vryman’s Erven, where they discovered a pair of grey trousers, a  shirt of a similar colour, a pair of white sneakers, a handbag, an identification card, a Guyana passport in the name of Hardia Geunt and an umbrella.

However, the assailant eluded the dragnet by crawling through the swampy area and escaping.

Earlier, Geunt had had a handbag containing $150,000 in her possession when she visited the lawyer’s office at Lot 8 St Ann Street.

The woman, who had gone to transact business at the law firm, was seated on a stool when an unmasked man pointed a gun at her saying, “Ah you me come fa.”  He then lashed her in the head with the weapon and robbed her, before riding off on a bicycle.