A family of seven, who were terrorized for an hour on Thursday night by three men claiming to be police officers, says that police at the Springlands Police Station refused to take their statements when they went to make a report and they immediately travelled to Georgetown to lodge a complaint. Stabroek News was unable to elicit a response from the police yesterday to the complaint.
Shameer Sattaur, 24, of Crabwood Creek, Corentyne and members of his family, who travelled all the way from Berbice yesterday, told this news publication that around 9:30 pm on Thursday three men “with long guns” kicked down their gate, then the door to their house and made their way into their home. Sattaur explained that once inside the house, the men pounded on his bedroom door and ordered him out.
He said that he initially refused to open his door since “nobody ain’t supposed to be pounding on de door like duh.” He said however, that after the men claimed to be police officers he opened the door to see what they wanted. Shameer said that it was at this point that they ordered him and the remaining occupants of the house to put their hands up and to look up at the ceiling so as to prevent him from identifying them.
He said however, that he was able to get a good look at all three of the men before averting his eyes. Shameer said that the men that terrorized his family for more than an hour are some of the same persons he grew up with as a child. He said that the men took their time and upturned the house looking for valuables. They eventually found and made off with approximately $60,000 in cash as well as nine pieces of jewellery belonging to his niece and nephew.
The man explained that the entire episode was triggered by an altercation which occurred between his sister and the men earlier on Thursday. Nariman Sattaur, 27, said that earlier that day she went to a shop to purchase some items and unwittingly left her phone when she left. She said that after some time she realized the phone was no longer in her possession and decided to return to the last place she remembered having it.
The woman said that when she returned to the shop her phone was nowhere to be seen. Nariman said that she then asked the shop owner if he had noticed her phone. She said that the shop owner told her that he had not noticed the phone, and suggested that the person who came into the shop after her must have taken it. With this news she said that she left the shop, but was almost immediately confronted by the man’s wife and other relatives who accused her of being verbally abusive to her husband (the shop owner).
Nariman said that the man’s relatives then proceeded to assault her, even after the shop owner told them that she was not abusive to him in any way.
She said that one of the relatives even attempted to throw a bucket of “peppered water” on her, but missed, instead dousing one of their own relatives.
She said that after the beating the individuals drove to the Springlands Police Station and told the police that Nariman had assaulted them.
She said that they even laid the blame for the dousing of their relative with the “peppered water” on her.
The woman said that since she had neither transportation nor enough money for a taxi, she walked to the police station where she was taken into custody by the officers on duty. According to Nariman, the officers refused to take her statement, but instead told her to sit on a bench.
The woman said that it was the relatives of her attackers who subsequently went to her home and terrorized her family.
Shameer, who is Nariman’s brother, said that after they had been robbed he went down to the Springlands Police Station to make a report. The man said that it was then he realized that his sister had been detained. Shameer said when he attempted to make a report of the robbery the officers on duty refused to take his report and sent him away from the Station, forcing him to leave behind his sister, who was still sitting on a bench.
Nariman said that after sitting on the bench for a few hours she was finally allowed to leave after a senior officer turned up and ordered her release since there was no female officer present to oversee her detention.
