As the police probe into the robbery of the Guyana Telephone and Telegraph Company (GTT) kiosk at Giftland Mall widens, investigators have since detained a second suspect.
This was confirmed by Commander of Region 4(A) Edgar Thomas who informed Stabroek News that the man was arrested late Tuesday afternoon.
Thomas said that the two suspects currently in police custody are brothers. “They are brothers from the same home,” he said.
He added that as the investigation continues, the police are still on the hunt for a third individual, who managed to evade lawmen on Tuesday during an intelligence-led operation.
Thomas had previously told Stabroek News that around midday Tuesday, acting on intelligence the police went to D’Urban Street, Wortmanville, Georgetown and they encountered two suspects, one of whom was armed.
“We managed to apprehend the unarmed suspect. The one with the firearm made good his escape,” Thomas had said.
Residents had told this newspaper that the suspects were standing at the corner of D’Urban and Haley streets. They said upon noticing the police, the two ran in a bid to escape.
After one of the suspects was captured, residents said the police chased after his companion, who ran through a D’Urban Street yard which leads to Norton Street. The yard is shared by several residents.
The man who escaped was said to have been last seen in the vicinity of Le Repentir Cemetery.
The suspects were identified using surveillance footage of the robbery.
Around 9.30 pm on Monday, two men, one of whom was armed with a gun, robbed the GTT kiosk at the Giftland Mall of an undisclosed sum of cash.
At the time, some customers were paying their bills.
Stabroek News was previously told that the men walked up to the cashier and one of them pointed a gun at him, while another grabbed the cash.
Surveillance footage, which surfaced minutes after the robbery, showed the men walking into the mall like regular patrons. As they approached the kiosk, one went to the right and the other went to the left before they pounced on the cashier.
The armed bandit, the video showed, later whipped out his weapon, a handgun, and was brandishing it. This cause the customers who were paying their bills to scatter. The bandits used the distraction to make good their escape.
The mall’s security guards were immediately alerted and police were called.
Meanwhile, in a statement issued yesterday, Chairman of Giftland Group of Companies Roy Beepat said that security at the mall has since been strengthened with the placing of armed guards at the entrances.
“We wish to assure the public that we are aware of their security concerns which are our security concerns. As such we have further strengthened the mall with armed guards at our entrances effective immediately,” he said.
In a previous statement, Beepat had said that 46 full-time security guards were present during the robbery but they were unable to respond since they were not armed.
He had noted that in the past “repeated requests” were made to the authorities to have the Head and Deputy Head of security at the mall armed but these were denied.
“…the day shift was present but was unable to respond to this due to our application for arming our Head and Deputy Head of security [being] denied by the authorities and their recommendations for supernumerary accreditation being stuck in the system for the past few years. So despite our repeated request to be able to properly protect the mall and patrons from armed attempts such as this our pleas have fallen on deaf ears,” Beepat had said.
