Licensed firearm holder Orin Hudson wounded two gunmen who invaded the Serenity Restaurant and Bar at Joseph Pollydore Street, Lodge last night.
One of the men, identified as Akeem Holder, reportedly sustained a gunshot wound to the jaw and was, up to press time, in a critical condition at the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH). The second perpetrator, eyewitnesses said, was wounded to the shoulder, but ran from the scene after he was shot. He remained on the run up to late last night.
Serenity opened its door to patrons during the Christmas holidays about a month ago. Hudson, along with the owner of the bar Joan Williams and a third man were in the front of the bar at the time of the incident. The robbery, Stabroek News understands, occurred some time between 8.30 pm and 9 pm. The entire event unfolded over an approximate 15-minute period.
Hudson told Stabroek News that he was sitting at the bar, sipping his drink and speaking with Williams when a man walked in and ordered a beer. The man stayed a short time in the business place and then exited. This man, Hudson said, was the same one he shot to the jaw.
Several minutes after purchasing the beer, the man returned with the other perpetrator. Hudson was sitting on a bar stool and became aware of the attack when the first man walked behind the bar, took out a gun and held up Williams. As he stripped the businesswoman of her jewellery, the second man stood watch over the other persons present.
“After he done rob she now he come around outside to me and start asking me for my jewellery,” Hudson related, “and so I start to take it off but he tell me to bus’ it off, to hurry up and bus’ it off.”
The man said he complied with the robber’s demand and pulled his gold chain from his neck and also handed over a gold band, a gold ring, two cellular phones and about $20,000. After he was stripped of his valuables, Hudson said, the gunman demanded that he go into a back room where the kitchen is located.
“I see how dem hand de trembling and I know they don’t know nothing ‘bout gun… dem green,” Hudson said. “So I start to think ‘bout how I could get outta this ahead.”
The entire episode, Hudson said, happened so fast that he could not recall the exact details of it. But it was while he was at the door leading into the back room that he managed to get his gun and fired at the attacker closer to him. After the first robber was wounded he tried to run but another man, who was identified only as “Black boy”, jumped on him and held him down.
As this was happening the second perpetrator rushed towards the exit in a bid to escape. Hudson said he fired again and is certain he managed to hit him. Eyewitnesses who saw the man running from the bar told Stabroek News that he appeared to have been shot to the shoulder.
“Right now ah still getting meh head settled,” Hudson said. “Ah can’t even tell you how much shots I lick off… Plus I vex bad right now about something. When de police come dey tek this man and dey carry he to de hospital with all we jewellery and so on he… We didn’t get a chance to move anything.”
Meanwhile, Lovern Hudson said that shortly after 9 pm she received a call from someone who told her they were sorry to hear about what had happened to her husband. The woman said she knew Hudson had left for Serenity and she immediately became alarmed.
“I start to call he phones but they ring out,” she said.
Another woman, who was present at the scene, said that the two robbers were dressed in dark blue jeans and dark shirts. One of them, she explained, was wearing a white hat. “These men look so normal. Like anybody else who liming… You woulda never think they is robbers,” she said.
One woman told Stabroek News that she and another woman were in the yard of the restaurant when the first man walked into the building. However, it was when the man returned with the second man that she knew something was wrong. “As soon as I see the second one walk in here I get suspicious,” she said. “He walk in here and start behaving as if he own the place,” she told Stabroek News. She said she quietly called the police while watching the bandits rob Williams and the others in the restaurant. She said she did not try to escape since she was afraid the bandits would attack her as well. She was watching on as Hudson tackled the bandits.
“All I hear is pow, pow, pow and I run and hide,” a shop owner in the area told Stabroek News. Other residents said the men appeared to have planned their attack well. They said that the second bandit was waiting a short distance away while the first bandit went into the restaurant. Regarding the bandit who escaped, residents said that he ran west along Joseph Pollydore Street. He was clearly injured, several of them said, since he had been hit somewhere in his back.
