-Limers beaten, robbed in chilling attack
Bandits early yesterday morning shot a man in the neck; beat, terrorised and robbed eight others at a small grocery and barbershop on Mandela Avenue before escaping in a waiting car, having also grabbed two five-pound tins of Fern Leaf milk powder.
Twenty-seven-year-old Joseph Lewis called ‘Big Joe’ of South Ruimveldt Gardens is now a patient at a private hospital nursing gunshot injuries to his neck and chin. He was shot around 1.30 am yesterday at the shop where he and the other young men were ‘liming’. They were all robbed of cash, cell phones and jewellery.
Lewis’s relatives said yesterday afternoon that the young man underwent surgery and the bullet, which entered through his neck and lodged in his chin, was removed. He is in a stable condition.
Stabroek News was told yesterday that Lewis and 11 other young men were liming at the small building on Mandela Avenue between Hadfield and Joseph Pollydore streets, which houses both the grocery and barbershop, when the three bandits, all of whom were armed with pistols, barged in. Two of the bandits had red kerchiefs covering their faces from the nose down. One of them fired a shot, which hit Lewis, who was closest to the door.
At the time of the incident both shops were closed. While the grocery’s owner had left the premises, his son, who owns the barbershop, had retired to bed at the same location with his wife.
When Stabroek News visited the scene yesterday morning, some of the victims were discussing the robbery. One of them was unable to move his parked car as the bandits had escaped with his car keys. Three of the 12 young men were counting their lucky stars as they were able to run to the back of the building and hide and as such escaped the bandits’ rampage. Another was not so lucky as he was mistaken for the shop owner and bore the brunt of the beating, sustaining bruises to his face and a minor cut to his head.
‘Jamal’
Relating what occurred, one of the victims told Stabroek News that five of them were in the barbershop watching television while the others were in the small hallway separating the two shops. He said they heard someone knocking on the door, which was closed. He said while they would sometimes sell phone cards for the shop owner, they would not open the door unless they knew who was on the other side.
One of them asked who it was and someone answered, “is Jamal”. He said they all looked at each other as the only Jamal they knew was a small child who lives in Joseph Pollydore Street and they doubted he would have been on the street at that hour in the morning.
“So we say we ent know no Jamal,” the victim said, “and Big Joe mek a joke and say ‘pass de gun, pass de gun.’ He then push de door to peep to see is who and dem man kick down de door and come in.”
Upon entering, one of the bandits immediately fired a shot which hit Lewis and he fell to the ground. Some of the young men who had been standing in the hallway ran into the barbershop where the others were, while three of them ran to the back of the building and hid. The young men in the barbershop were told to lie on the ground and were dealt blows as one of the bandits asked, “wheh de shop man deh”. The bandits were told that the owner of the shop had already left.
Even though Lewis was shot and bleeding, one of the bandits pounced on him and robbed him of two cellular phones and some cash and asked him where his jewellery was. “Is like dem know he, because Big Joe does normally wear some big chain and suh but he ent had them on,” one of the young men said.
The bandits then proceeded to rob the young men lying on the floor in the barbershop. One of them lost a gold chain and $5,000; a phone technician lost four cellular phones; another man lost about $58,000 and a ring made of gold and diamonds valued at $40,000. Three other cellular phones were stolen along with $10,000 and another of the young men was robbed of $30,000 and the keys for his car and house. Another of the young men lost his bluetooth ear piece and a gold chain. Others also lost their car keys.
“Dem men get a good haul. I tell you dem really rob we,” one of the young men said.
Hid under the bed
Meanwhile, as the young men were being terrorised and robbed the barbershop owner, Khamisi Mason and his wife Eseher Joseph, were in their bed. Joseph told Stabroek News that she was awakened by the gunshot and then she heard a man asking for the shop owner. In fear, she immediately went under the bed and hid and her husband followed. She said shortly after two of the men entered their sleeping area and rifled through some drawers and stole some $40,000, which consisted of the day’s earnings from the shop. They also stole three bottles of colognes and about $40,000 in GT&T and Digicel phone cards.
“When they find the money and so on, I heard one of them saying ‘Boy you ent see wah we woulda miss if we didn’t come in hay,’” Joseph said. She said she believed that it was because the lights were off that she and husband were spared as at one time the bandits lifted the mattress off the bed.
“But we went up in the corner and when they lift off the mattress a little piece of it was still on the bed frame and is under there we went,” she said. “With the darkness they didn’t see us. My husband was about to get up and talk to them but I pull he down back and tell he be quiet.”
The bandits then entered the grocery and grabbed the two tins of milk from a shelf before leaving.
The victims said they were ordered not to move until ten minutes had elapsed after the bandits left. They were also warned that should anyone attempt to pick them out they would be killed.
They said they were told that the men ran around the corner to Joseph Pollydore Street where a dark-coloured car was waiting and escaped.
The police were summoned and an ambulance took Joseph to the hospital.
Investigations are continuing.