Laing Avenue residents are crying out for police protection in a section of the area where a bicycle gang has been carrying out robberies over the last year.
The gang members, reportedly numbering around six men, are waylaying residents at a bridge and carrying out the attacks in broad daylight and also at night. A few of the incidents have gone unreported, but a report was recently made to the police. The gang recently beat and robbed a pastor.
There are reports of over a dozen attacks over the last two months, during which residents were relieved of jewellery, cellular phones and cash. The gang is said to have been operating well over a year now.
Charlton Gritten, a pastor, told Stabroek News yesterday that he was the last known victim of the gang. According to him, the attack was “sudden and despicable”. He said the bandits are operating with impunity and are terrorizing persons in the area. “It’s like you can’t walk this bridge anymore because it is happening at any hour… many of us who live here are suffering but it is time to speak out and get the police to move against these guys,” he said.
Gritten, popularly known as “Brother Mojo,” was on his way home from work on December 28 last, when he disembarked a minibus and noticed two young men on bicycles. He recognised one of them and greeted him and the young man responded with “hello.” But within minutes, the same young man had Gritten locked in a ‘vice’ while five of his friends approached him demanding money.
He recalled that it was just after 11 pm and the men attacked him just as he neared the bridge. He said that one of the men drew a gun and started beating him with the weapon. The gang stripped him of a digital camera, a bag of tools, and cash. Gritten said he made a dash for home after the men grabbed the items but as he was fleeing he shouted, “I know you” to the young man he had greeted earlier.
The men fled the scene on four bicycles and Gritten made his way to the Ruimveldt Police Station, where he reported the matter. He said the young man whom he recognized appeared vexed that he called out to him after the attack. Gritten said he is not afraid to speak out because “someone has to.”
He continued that the gang has been attacking people in the area for too long and the time has come for the police to protect them. Gritten was beaten in the face and sustained a cut above his left eye. He said the police have been helpful but he added that no progress has been made to date with respect to the gang.
Gritten added that his younger brother was attacked a month before him and relieved of a cellular phone and his salary. He said four men were involved in the attack on his brother.
‘Thieving Bridge’
Stabroek News also spoke with Salima Amanatuallah, well known in the area as “Aunty Alice,” who said she was attacked some two months ago by the same gang. She recalled that it was around 7 pm when she exited a minibus and noticed two young men acting suspiciously.
“I see dese two boys and dey look suspicious, suspicious…I turn to another guy with a shop and tell he that I ‘fraid to go home,” Amanatuallah recounted. She said that the young men were walking, stopping and looking back at her. The shop owner told her to wait while he searched for a cutlass to walk her home, but a minibus pulled up and a young man got out.
Amanatuallah said that the passenger who exited the bus was going in the same direction so she started walking with him and they were chatting when they passed the two guys.
She then heard a sound and looked back to see the man who was walking with her struggling with the bicycle gang members.
Amanatuallah, afraid and confused, snatched off the chain she was wearing and handed it over to one of the guys who approached her. “I hand dem de chain and dey seh look is artificial…one ah dem ask me if I ain’t gat money,” she recalled. She said that the men grabbed her bag, searched it and then tossed it aside.
The woman said that she started hollering “thief, thief!” and the men fled with her chain and the items which they snatched from the man. She said reports of robberies at the bridge are frequent and according to her, the reports suggest that some 50 attacks were carried out last year at the bridge. “People don’t really talk but is plenty people get rob there and it happening night and day,” she said. She recalled that the men were “very young.” Amanatuallah said the bridge has been renamed “thieving bridge.”
Mary Johnson, a teacher and resident, also recounted to this newspaper that her gold chain was snatched at the bridge around mid-last year. She was walking home with her young daughter and two other small children around 1 pm on the day in question when she noticed a young man standing at the bridge aimlessly.
Johnson passed him and just as she crossed over the bridge someone grabbed her by the collar. She said the man managed to grab her chain and he fled on foot. The woman said she was traumatised by the incident, but did not make a report to the police. She explained that she had the chain for years and whenever she had saved up enough money she added more gold to it.
“I started out at two pennyweights and when he took it, it was seven pennyweights,” she related. She said that a few persons were close by but no one managed to stop the bandit. Johnson said she felt violated after the incident and her neck bore the scars of the attack.
Johnson’s daughter, Stacey, said three men on bicycles attempted to snatch her cellular phone some time last month when she was on her way home. She was holding her phone in her hand and passed the men when one made an attempt to grab it. She screamed and managed to flee before the men could pursue her.
