Providence businesswoman shot in robbery

Bibi Sharmeeran Singh was rushed to the Diamond Hospital, bleeding profusely from her right calf.

Singh said that on Christmas Eve around 13:30 hrs, she and her husband went to a bank on the East Bank to conduct  a financial transaction and when they had completed it they returned to Bibi’s business on the Providence Public Road.

Singh’s husband said that he had noticed a grey car drive up behind their vehicle but thought nothing of it since it was normal for customers to park in the compound. He left his wife in the compound and went off to the urinal unaware that his wife would soon be struggling with a thief.

“It was when I heard a bang that I jump up and ran out,” the man recalled. He said that when he rushed out he saw his bleeding wife who was screaming.

He said that his youngest son jumped into another vehicle and chased after the perpetrators. He ordered other members of the family who were working there to carry his wife to the hospital and then rushed after his son who was in pursuit of the gunman.

He said that he remembered that the vehicle had been parked 30 yards in front of them and that there was only one person in the grey Premio. “The window was slightly tinted but I could have seen the driver. There wasn’t anyone else in the car,” he said.

Bibi said that she had also noticed the vehicle but paid no attention to it. “It was when my husband left and I came out that this thing occurred.”

She remembered that the car drove up beside her and then the back door was suddenly flung opened and the man grabbed at her bag. “But I wouldn’t let go and we started to tug and scramble,” she recalled. After realizing that she wasn’t letting go of the bag, the gunman began to tumble in his car for something.

He pulled out the gun and shot at her. Scared and injured she loosed her bag and ran for cover when he raised the gun at her again.

“I ran and hid behind the car,” she said, adding that the shock and terror of the moment caused her to scream and the gunman then fled the scene with the bag which contained her passport, her identification card and $400,000.

Singh’s husband said that his wife’s life was his Christmas present this year. Singh was treated at the Diamond Hospital and sent home to her family. Police are still carrying out their investigation.