The driver of a taxi is in police custody following a daring armed robbery on the Proprietor of Igloo, Camp Street which was followed by a frenetic police chase through the city.
Racer Gavin Gouveia told Stabroek News last night that he had just left his vehicle parked in front of his home on Middle Street and was walking to his business on Camp Street when a gunman walked up and demanded his $1.5M gold chain. “I was standing there and he came up and point the gun at me and say ‘Leh I get that f#@ing chain’ like if is he own. I see the gun and I say ‘Huh?’ and he fire a shot and then I say ‘Okay Okay I taking it off’ and start taking it off but like it wasn’t quick enough so he began pulling it off and it was choking me but it still won’t burst “ the 40-year-old man said.
Gouveia said this apparently angered the man who pulled at the three-ounce gold chain violently. In the process it caused a huge cut in Gouveia’s lower jaw and burst his fingers as he was holding the chain so he would not be choked. In the process the assailant’s gun, he said, was either dropped to the ground or put there because after the chain burst the man picked it up and fired another two or three rounds and began running to a waiting car parked about ten feet away from the Igloo Ice Cream outlet on Camp Street.
However as the robber was about to enter the taxi, a police car approached and the bandit abandoned it and ran across the road, scaling the Christ Church Secondary School fence and making good his escape.
The police car followed the driver of the taxi who raced through Camp Street and turned left into Church Street. The police attempted to block the taxi at the intersection of Orange Walk and Church Street. The car crashed into a nearby concrete bridge and the driver was taken into custody.
Police arrested a young man but he was later released after the victim said that he was not the bandit.
Investigations are ongoing.