Two men have been arrested after they were caught with a motorcycle that was taken from a man who was attacked by a cutlass-wielding gang near Sophia, on Tuesday night.
Leon Clarke, 18, of 64 West La Penitence was attacked by six men, some of whom were armed with cutlasses around 10 pm, in the vicinity of Eastern Highway.
He was robbed of his motorcycle and a gold chain. According to police, a report was made and ranks of a mobile patrol later caught two men with the bike at Sophia. They are expected to be charged shortly, police noted.
According to Clarke, he and a friend were riding their bikes in the vicinity of the Sophia main road when he made a stop to collect a friend. He then dropped his friend a short distance away and was about to turn around when he saw two men with cutlasses. “I know one of them, so I said, ‘Look is who boy’ and I start talking to he,” he told Stabroek News.
Clarke stated that as he was talking to the man, he saw two armed men with their faces covered approaching them. “So, I turn to de one I know and seh if you come fuh rob me, is you gon’ feel the squeeze ’cause I know you,’” he recalled.
He then tried to start his bike and one of the bandits asked him what kind of game he was playing and then hit him with a brick. “So when me friend see that, he ride way and left me,” Clarke said. “After they pelt me, I drop me bike and one of them try to snatch me and me chain drop,” he added, saying that as one of the men picked up the chain, he began to run, only to realise that about six men were chasing him.
As he ran, a man in a car who observed what was happening discharged a round and he ran in the direction of the car. “I run in de man car and when I do that, the man point he gun at me an tell me come out he car, ’cause they de coming towards the car… but I din come out I de frighten,” Clarke said.
He believed that because the driver was armed, the bandits fled, rolling away the motorcycle into Sophia. Clarke then ran out of the car and scaled a fence as he tried to escape from the men. He said “I din care about dog, I just jump de fence and I end up in one of my school friend yard and I tell them what happen,” he said, adding that his friend’s mother then called the police, who responded promptly and gave chase after the bandits. The police then found the men in a yard with the bike. Clarke also stated that when they found his bike it was covered with zinc at an old house. (Mandy Thompson)
