Berbice rights activist robbed at gunpoint in home

A rights activist in Berbice was on Tuesday night robbed at gunpoint by a lone gunman.

Miriam Edwards was relieved of a quantity of jewellery and cash at her Fort Ordnance Housing Scheme residence.

Edwards recalled that at around 8.15 pm, she was sitting on her verandah when a young man entered her yard. She said the youth, whom she believed was a teenager, approached her and placed a gun to her back before directing her to walk into the house. She was also instructed to be silent and hand over whatever valuables she had.

Miriam Edwards
Miriam Edwards

The activist said she handed over her gold rings and a gold chain to the bandit. At the time of the robbery she was not alone at home. Edwards said her two children were in their rooms unaware of what was happening; the incident was over in minutes.

According to Edwards who is the director of Guyana Sex Workers Coalition, after the robbery, the robber briskly walked out of her premises hopped onto a bicycle and escaped. She noted, too, that there was a second person waiting outside her yard on a bicycle.

The woman said she contacted the Central Police Station at New Amsterdam and the police arrived promptly and began investigations.

Police have since arrested three suspects who are wanted for a series of robberies in the New Amsterdam area.

Acting on intelligence, police went to a popular New Amsterdam Hotel where they arrested three men who were in the company of three women.

Two of the men captured by police are suspected to be a part of the bloody attempted robbery in Tucberg, New Amsterdam which occurred during the wee hours of Saturday morning.

Three men had attacked Nicholas Harrinandan and his wife. However, Harrinandan fought back and injured one of the men who was hospitalized at the New Amsterdam Hospital and discharged into police custody on Tuesday.

Harrinandan remains a patient at the Georgetown Public Hospital.

Commander of ‘B’ Division, Christopher Griffith yesterday told Stabroek News that the police force is in the process of conducting an identification parade.