Elderly couple brutalized, robbed by bandits in half-hour ordeal

A Rose Hall Town couple was brutally beaten and robbed by two armed bandits some time between 8 pm and 9 pm on Wednesday.

Mohammed Haroon, 63, and Geanna “Jean” Abdul, 76, were both badly beaten by the armed bandits, who ransacked the house and demanded cash and jewellery.

Abdul is currently receiving treatment at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital for the injuries she sustained.

A battered Mohammed Haroon recounts the ordeal

Haroon recounted the horrifying incident, which he said went on for about half an hour.  “Me and meh wife sit down in the verandah tek some breeze. She was lying down in the hammock and me bin a sit on the chair. She get up and say she going and bath and me tell her alright me gon tek some more breeze,” he recalled.

He said he then decided to watch television. Haroon must have left the verdanah door open because soon after he put on the television, he heard a sound and turned to see a man with a gun.

“He point the gun at meh and said ‘don’t move if yuh move I shoot yuh fa kill yuh. Sit down yuh s@#$% deh’,” Haroon said.

He sat and then his wife returned from the bathroom and walked into the bandits, who demanded cash and the jewellery she had on.  “They started to lick [beat] up meh wife with the gun in she head and across she face,” Haroon said.

One of the bandits then took him into the room and demanded more cash and jewellery from them even though they said they did not have anymore. Haroon said one of the bandits tried to bite his finger for the gold rings he had on. “I turn and tell him na bite meh, meh gon take it out and give it to yuh,” he said.

He said one of the bandits, while demanding more cash and jewels from them, had the temerity to “tun to my wife and seh ‘yuh na know me father dead and you have to mind me?’”

The bandits continued to brutalise the couple with kicks, punches and gun lashes about their bodies demanding cash and jewellery although they begged them to stop. Haroon said the bandit eventually tied him up and duct taped his mouth in the room.

After beating his wife some more, he said, as he could hear her hollering and begging, the bandit took him downstairs and taped up his feet. They then immobilized his wife as well with the duct tape before leaving, firing two shots as they went.

Haroon said he struggled and loosed his hands by rubbing them on an iron bracket behind the door, “and then meh tek the scissors and cut out the rest of the tape on me. Then me went to loose Jean” he said.

He said he called out to the neighbours who went to their assistance. The neighbours called the police and took them to the hospital.

According to Haroon his wife sustained injuries to her eyes, which are black and blue; her face, which is swollen and other parts of her body. He sustained injuries to one eye, a bruise on his nose and injuries to his hand.  He added that his wife is in serve pain.

The bandits made off with over $1.5 million in jewellery and cash which they found while ransacking the house. They also took a stereo set and several other items.

Police investigations are in progress.