Five charged over Piari Landing robbery

Five suspects were yesterday charged with Sunday night’s Piari Landing robbery, in Region Seven.

At the Bartica Magistrates’ Court, Ken Parris, 38, of D’Urban Street, Lodge; Alexander Imhoff, 35, of D’Urban Street, Lodge; Aaron Williamson, 30 of Joseph Pollydore Street, Lodge; and Eustace Thomas, 38 of East Ruimveldt, Georgetown, were all charged with six counts of robbery-under-arms, while Ian Monderson, 26, of North Road, Georgetown, was charged with seven counts of robbery-under-arms, police said.

They were all additionally charged with simple larceny of a boat and engine, while Monderson and Williamson were charged with unlawful possession of arms and ammunition.

Magistrate Haymant Ramdhani remanded them all to prison until November 11.

The injured suspect from Sunday night’s Piari Landing robbery being transported by police at Parika yesterday.

The five men and an alleged accomplice who was shot were transported from Bartica to Georgetown yesterday afternoon along with other prisoners.

The robbery occurred around 7 pm on Sunday, when a large gang of men armed with handguns stormed Piari Landing, at Puruni and wounded three Brazilians in the process. Millions of dollars were stolen in the raid.
According to the police, as the men approached, a number of shop owners and other persons fled into the bushes, but eight persons were robbed of cash, raw gold and jewellery, including the three who were shot and injured. The perpetrators, police said, attempted to escape in a boat that they had stolen from Piari Landing but while travelling along the Mazaruni River, it overturned.

The bodies of six men, five of whom are suspected to be bandits, were discovered by police in the vicinity of Looking Glass Falls in the Mazaruni River, afterward. Two of these bodies have since been identified by the police as Aubrey Kingston, a hostage, of Linden and a man who went by the name of Gregory Isaacs, of Laing Avenue.