A taxi driver escaped with his life yesterday after two men boarded his car pretending to be passengers, but robbed, gun-butted, stabbed, shot at him and took his car, which was later recovered.
Faran Asif Yassen was treated at the Georgetown Hospital and several hours after the incident, barely able to walk, he was sent home.
The car the man was driving, a GR taxi, HA 9855, which is attached to the Sheriff Street base, was found about one hour after it was taken in a back street in Better Hope, East Coast Demerara.
At his Better Hope home yesterday, Yassen, with at least six stitched wounds to his head, several visible cuts and a bandaged hand told Stabroek News of his frightening and near death experience.
He said that around 4 am, a man stopped him in front of the Sheriff Night Club and asked what the fare to Bel Air was. He replied, “$400”, and the man jumped into the front seat of the car.
Yassen said when he stopped no one was with the man but seconds after he got into the vehicle another man jumped into the back seat.
The taxi driver, who has been in the business for some eight years, said the second man asked him for a cigarette and he obliged.
He said when he neared Bel Air on the Railway Embankment, the passenger in the front seat took out money to pay before directing him to a yard in Sand Road.
The man said that as soon as the car stopped the man in the front seat pulled out a revolver and pointed it at him. “He tell me don’t move, don’t mek noise or ah gon kill you,” Yassen said.
In a brave move, Yassen attempted to relieve the gunman of his weapon but his efforts were in vain as the second man exited the vehicle and put a “Rambo knife” to his neck.
Seconds later, the two men were kicking him and beating him in the head with a gun. They then collected $16,000, which he had in his pants’ pocket.
Bleeding from the wounds to the head, the taxi driver was placed in the back seat of the car and instructed not to move or he would be shot.
He said one of them then drove the car to Clay Brick Road, Goedverwagting, which is several villages further up the East Coast, and stopped just before crossing over a wooden bridge. There, Yassen said, he beaten mercilessly and instructed to remove his shirt, which was later used to wrap the gun.
One of the men proceeded to search the car trunk, while the other began stabbing Yassen about his body concentrating the attack on the back of his neck and shoulder. He told Stabroek News that despite his injuries and the pain he was in, he managed to put up a fight and made a mad dash for safety.
“I exited the back of the car and ran south along the Goedverwagting Road and they fire three shot behind me but they miss,” he said, adding that although there were houses nearby, no one looked out or went to his aid.
He said that with the man chasing after him he managed to reach an area referred to as ‘Pradoville’ where he encountered a female security guard, who instructed him not to enter the property she was guarding, although he was covered in blood and begging for help. However, she rang the Sparendaam Police Station, but was unsuccessful in contacting the police. At this point, the two men chasing him, turned around and went back to the car.
Yassen later contacted his base and his fellow drivers arrived and took him to the hospital.
While he was at the institution, Yassen said, a policeman went and spoke to him. After undergoing an x-ray, having his hand bandaged and several wounds on his head stitched, the man was discharged just after 11 am.
He said he had never been the victim of an armed robbery but had told himself that if ever he was in such a situation he would do everything in his power to gain control.
Over the years, several drivers have been relieved of their vehicles at gunpoint.
Just recently gunmen in a car blocked the path of a Canter truck belonging to Patsan’s Trading at Lusignan, Railway Embankment in a well planned attacked before driving off with the vehicle.
It was later found abandoned at Cummings Lodge; a metal canister containing $3 million was missing from it.