The Kaneville family that was on Sunday brutalized and robbed by armed bandits yesterday received another threatening telephone call and was subjected to verbal abuse by a resident.
Michelle Menezes has since made a report to the police and is anxiously awaiting the arrival of her husband, who is in the interior.
According to a senior police officer, one suspect remains in custody and searches are being conducted for his accomplices. He said that investigators will soon be approaching the local telephone company to trace the origin of the threatening telephone calls.
The scared woman recounted to this newspaper that around 7 am yesterday a man called her house phone and threatened to harm them if the suspect is not released. “Y’all try and get ‘Donkey’ out. If y’all don’t get he out y’all gon see what we gon do to you,” a terrified Menezes recounted the call. She pleaded for the police to find the perpetrators quickly.
She believed that her number was passed to the bandits by another resident, since many persons in the area know it. The house number is listed under her husband’s second name and Menezes was adamant that the perpetrators could not have found it from the telephone book. She added yesterday morning that she spotted a resident she suspected of being involved but efforts to contact the police were futile as the station phone rang out.
The woman later went with her daughter-in-law to the hospital and on her return home she was informed that the same resident had verbally abused her family.
Stabroek News was told that the man, who was standing in a neighbouring yard, used foul language and called females who were there derogatory names. He also said that he was not afraid of the police since he had a friend in the force, who he named. The man, who said he was innocent, accused Menezes’ family of trying to set him up. “I think that he knows something because of his attitude,” Menezes said, adding that the resident is among many who would walk through her yard. The yard is not fenced. There are suspicions that the resident and the man in custody are friends.
The woman said that the stolen money was to be used to fix her house. The frail structure is made of plywood and zinc. Some of the zinc sheets from the house, she added, would have been used to build a temporary fence. She said she and her husband work in the interior and she only returned home last Wednesday.
Following Sunday’s incident, police have been patrolling the area regularly.
Around 1 am on Sunday, three bandits, one of whom was armed with a handgun, invaded the East Bank Demerara home. During the invasion, they assaulted children and shot Menezes’ son Akeem Ames, 18, and his pregnant girlfriend, Linda King, before escaping with $475,000. During the ordeal, which lasted about ten minutes, the bandits demanded money while threatening to kill the family. A fourth man was outside keeping watch.
After the men left, the family received five threatening phone calls saying that they (the bandits) will return. One of the calls was received in the presence of a Stabroek News reporter but the caller remained silent.
Menezes, who was being sought by the robbers, managed to escape to neighbours, who assisted in calling the police. The bandits even went to the nearby home of Menezes’ sister but fled empty-handed when one of them told the others that the police were coming.
