Bandits hit Commerce House Cambio again
Accountant shot dead; proprietor critical
City Constabulary office riddled with bullets
By Miranda La Rose and Andre Haynes
It was a replay of July 14, 1999 for Commerce House Cambio on Regent Street yesterday morning, when armed bandits stormed the premises, firing shots and escaping with an undisclosed sum of money. But this time around, a worker’s life was snuffed out and the owner critically injured.
And just like in 1999, the City Constabulary office opposite came under heavy fire as the bandits, who used two white cars, made good their escape. The heist on that occasion was $13 million, but no one was able to estimate how much was taken yesterday.
Dead is Commerce House cashier/accountant Ramnauth Persaud also called ’Jack’ 44, of 80 New Road, Vreed-en- Hoop, West Coast Demerara. According to a release from the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation, Persaud was pronounced dead on arrival. He sustained two gunshot wounds to the “chest wall region of the heart.” Injured and in a city hospital is Kennard Gobin, the owner of the cambio at 93 Regent Street, Lacytown. The hospital’s release said that Gobin, who received multiple gunshot wounds, including one “to his heart,” was conscious on arrival at the hospital. He underwent emergency surgery. His daughter told this newspaper late yesterday that the surgery had been successful and her father’s condition was stable.