Rural Constables from the Montrose Community Police Group (CPG) nabbed two robbers, hours after they attacked employees at the LAHAGO Supercentre and made off with an undisclosed sum of money.
Minutes after robbing the Montrose business place, the two perpetrators reportedly fled to a bushy area, a few villages away, behind Pigeon Island, East Coast Demerara with members of the CPG on their trail.
A witness, who requested anonymity, told Stabroek News yesterday afternoon that they saw the two men running through a street. The men, according to the witness, headed straight for the seawalls and kept running along that area. Shortly after, a vehicle of CPG members sped through the same street in search of the men.
When Stabroek News visited the Pigeon Island area about two hours after the robbery, residents reported that the CPG vehicle had sped into the area. “We don’t know exactly what happen but we hear is two robber man they chase to the back there…they hiding in some bushy area,” one Pigeon Island resident said.
Some time around 9pm last night, a source close the CPG said that they had managed to apprehend one of the men before dark. The perpetrator, the source explained, was unhurt and was taken to the Sparendaam Police Station for question. Several more hours of searching, the source said, finally paid off when the second man was apprehended a short distance away. However, a member of the CPG team wounded the second perpetrator in the leg.
This man was taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital last night for treatment and then released back into police custody. It is unclear whether the stolen cash was recovered. “We have already identified these two men as the same men who attacked the store,” the source stated.
The owner of the supermarket, Lachmie Baburam, had earlier told Stabroek News that the robbers made no effort to hide their faces during the attack. The store, she explained, is equipped with 18 CCTV (Close Circuit Television) cameras and the entire robbery was recorded. Investigators, she said, reviewed the footage and were able to pick up clear images of the faces of the two men.
Baburam explained that the incident occurred at about 1pm. The woman was not present at the time of the incident but viewed the CCTV footage along with police. One of the attackers, she related, entered the store and asked where he could find a bottled drink.
The man, she said, left and then returned a short time later with another man by his side. Baburam related that one of the men then pulled out a gun, pointed it at one of the employees and demanded that she hand over the money. “He told her to hand over the money and she told him she didn’t have any and then he asked her how come she didn’t have any when they had been selling all day,” Baburam said.
Holding the cashier at gunpoint, the attacker forced her to open the register and emptied it. Baburam declined to disclose the sum of money that was stolen and noted that it could put her at a disadvantage. “I don’t want to give other criminals any ideas,” the woman said.
She said that after the men fled, her daughter, who was one of the four persons present in the store, ran out into the traffic on the Railway Embankment Road. Baburam said that her daughter was able to stop a car which was being driven by a policeman but he offered no help.
“She said that the policeman asked her what he could do about that and just drove away,” Baburam said. “The community policing people came out though…they responded quickly and they started to track down the robbers.”
Baburam has been operating her Montrose business for more than five years. The incident was the second time her business had been attacked by robbers. “The last incident was the same as this one. The gunmen came in and pretended that they were buying something and then just pull out guns,” she said.
