Fazil Mohammed, 48, of Yarowkabra, Linden/Soesdyke Highway was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) for medical attention. Though relatives reported they’d learnt from doctors that Mohammed was bleeding internally, the man remained in stable condition.
Police in a press statement yesterday afternoon reported that they were investigating the robbery. Mohammed, according to them, was attacked and robbed by two men armed with handguns at the Yarowkabra sand pit. Investigations, police said, revealed that Mohammed “was sitting in his motor vehicle at the sand pit when he was confronted by the two men who pulled him out of the vehicle and shot him to his chest and shoulder. They took away his licensed firearm and ammunition along with $100, 000 cash and escaped.”
Faraz Mohammed, the injured man’s son, told Stabroek News at the GPH yesterday afternoon that his father, though bleeding heavily, had managed to relate to him what had happened. Contrary to the police release, Faraz said the men shot his father first before yanking him from the vehicle.
“He told me that two … fellows jump out of this silver grey 212 Carina and one of them immediately started shooting at him,” Faraz said. “My father said that after they finish shooting they immediately dragged him out the vehicle, threw him on the ground and started kicking him.”
After assaulting Mohammed the attackers stripped him of his wallet, revolver, cellular phone and other valuables. The men were also able to steal $100, 000 cash from the businessman, his son reported.
Mohammed’s sand pit is located some distance along a trail off the Linden/Soesdyke Highway. Faraz said his father followed a fixed routine and would normally rise some time between 2.30 am and 3 am every day and leave his Yarowkabra home for the sand pit where he overlooked operations and dealt with the financial aspect of the business.
“He would park along the trail right at the top of the sandpit and collect money there and look over the operations,” Faraz explained. “He has about six employees working with him and they would normally close operations at about 4 pm.”
Faraz believes the attackers were fed information on his father’s routine before their attack. The man also said that his father saw the silver grey 212 Carina drive by him sometime before the attack.
“He told me that the car drove by him on the trail earlier in the morning but he didn’t take it for anything…he saw the series which was PKK but didn’t manage to get the numbers,” Faraz said.
Besides his father’s sandpit, the man explained, there is only one other business, a chicken farm, located farther along the trail. It is clear, Faraz said, that the first time the men drove by it was to observe Mohammed and see that he was keeping to his routine.
Faraz, who also lives in Yarowkabra, said that as soon as he was informed of what had happened he rushed to the scene.
“I got in my truck immediately,” Faraz recalled, “and I rushed over there to take my father to the hospital. The truck wasn’t fast enough though and so I stopped at the highway junction and put my dad in a taxi which could get him to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre faster.”
Mohammed was x-rayed at the Diamond Diagnostic Centre and then transferred to GPH for further medical attention. The man, according to his son, sustained three gunshot wounds to the right shoulder and chest area.
Police are continuing their investigations.
