Passenger called 911 to no avail – driver says

– passports, documents also stolen

One of the passengers on board the Lethem bound bus that was attacked by a gang of heavily armed bandits on Friday night, made several attempts to contact the police by dialling 911, to no avail.

It was only after a member of the Guyana Police Force was contacted through a relative of another passenger that a police mobile patrol arrived on the scene. This was about an hour after the incident took place.

This newspaper made several attempts yesterday to seek an explanation from the police about the inaccessibility of 911, since they have repeatedly said that it was in working order. However, these proved unsuccessful.

A Lethem-bound bus attached P&A Bus Service and driven by Dhanram Singh, was on the Soesdyke/Linden Highway around 8.30 pm when it was attacked by armed bandits in two cars.

The men robbed Singh and his nine passengers – five Brazilians, two Surinamese and two Guyanese – of a quantity of cash and jewellery before fleeing. During the course of the incident, Singh called `Bedi’ was grazed by a bullet in the back, while Brazilian Barbara Ferreira was shot in her wrist. She had run into the bushes as the incident unfolded and was not located until after 11 pm, when the army arrived to assist in the search.

Speaking to Stabroek News yesterday, a relieved but still shaken Singh recalled that during the incident the gunmen “who were dressed in ordinary clothes”, were threatening to kill them. He said that the men numbering about eight were repeatedly saying that they knew that those in the bus were going back home and had gold and money. They were saying this as they tumbled the bags of the passengers, which were left in the bus.

Singh, who took up his present job in January, recalled that after he saw the suspicious car behind him, he continued driving but was forced to stop after the gunmen shot out the back tyres of the bus.

“When the bus stop, I just tell them (the passengers) to run. There was a few who got out first,” he said adding that when the gunmen descended on them they took a gold hand band and ring from him and tumbled up the bags.

In addition to taking the cash, they had, he said, the men made off with some of the passengers documents, which included passports.

Singh told Stabroek News that the ordeal shook him but he knew that they were being pursued by robbers and that is why he did not stop. He said the men’s motive was to rob and not kill and he was thankful that no one was seriously hurt during the incident.

The area where the drama unfolded is just past the highway’s police outpost near Camp Wesleyan. It was very dark as there is no electricity along the highway; an issue that residents have been complaining about for years.
The police

Singh recalled that when he passed the police outpost he did not see any police or vehicles or even a mobile unit, which was strange as there would usually be a roadblock set up there.

He said too that there was also no police patrol on the East Bank road that night.

The man recalled that after the gunmen had fled east (in the direction of the East Bank) a passenger made several failed attempts to contact 911. He stressed that they were getting signal on their cellular phones and he later made contact with someone. That was how police arrived on the scene.

Singh pointed out that had they gotten through to the emergency number, contact could have been made with the nearby police outpost and the gunmen could have been caught.

He pointed to the need for security along the highway to prevent a reoccurrence of Friday night’s incident. He opined that while one cannot expect the police to patrol the entire highway, a roadblock could be set up at the junction, where vehicles going onto the highway and those heading to the airport could be stopped and searched.

The man had told Stabroek News on Friday night at the Diamond Diagnostic centre where he had been taken for treatment that he had observed a car following him and became suspicious especially after its driver began flashing his lights.

Even as he increased his speed, the car followed and when it was apparent that Singh was not going to stop, the bandits shot out the back tyres of the bus.

He had said that after his vehicle was halted, the passengers were taken out and made to lie in the bushes. One group of heavily armed gunmen ransacked their luggage and also guarded them while another group patrolled the area. Singh said the bandits had handguns and shotguns.