Bandits shot and wounded a pastor last night after he saw them robbing three men across the street from his home.

Pastor Nigel Milo of the Church of Christ, had just disembarked from his minibus outside his house in Central Amelias Ward, McKenzie, when he noticed three armed bandits robbing some men under a partly constructed house across the road.

When the gunmen realized he had seen them, they began firing at him, and he sustained one wound in the palm of his right hand and two in his thigh.

Shortly before this the bandits had robbed Sunita Ramanan, 40, and her three children aged 16, 11 and 4 of 1984 Central Amelias Ward. Ramanan told Stabroek News that she was sitting watching television with her children around 9.50 pm when she heard someone say “Shush,” and saw three armed men prise open her glass door.

As Ramanan held onto her children, one of the bandits put a gun to her head and the others demanded money.

She said she told them that she had none, but they took her from room to room, ransacking the home. They eventually made off with $100,000 and a quantity of jewellery.

Two lots further up the road the bandits came across the three men under the unfinished house, and after firing in the air, made them lie on the ground. Stabroek News was told that they were then relieved of cell phones, cash and jewellery, following which their assailants caught sight of the pastor.

But the gunmen were not finished for the night. As they went further up the road they encountered Ruben Stoby and a friend.

Stoby told this newspaper that one of the bandits had a pump-action rifle and the other two carried handguns.

They seized cell phones from the two, and then demanded money.

Stoby said that when he informed them he didn’t have much, they went through his pockets and found $60, which they promptly replaced in disgust. They then walked calmly up the street.

It was only when Stoby met the men under the house and pointed to the bandits walking up the road, that a group gathered to chase them. The bandits ran through yards, but the pursuers were reluctant to get too close because of the guns and they escaped.

Meanwhile the pastor was taken to the Linden Hospital Complex, where he was said to be in a stable condition.