A suspected robber was shot dead early yesterday morning after he invaded the home of an Annandale, East Coast Demerara family.
The man, who remained unidentified up to press time, was said to be one of three men who entered the yard of businessman Ishwar Jeffrey, 49, around 2am. After making his way into the house, the armed man later engaged in a shootout with a Rural Constable living in the house and was fatally shot.
Jeffrey told Stabroek News that he was awakened by the sound of barking dogs inside his yard. He added that when he investigated,
he saw three men at the back of his yard and it was at this point that he woke his son, who later shot and killed the intruder.
Police, in a press release, said Mananno Jeffrey, 31 years, who is a Rural Constable and a member of the Annandale North Community Policing Group and who is licensed to use the policing group’s firearm, armed himself after being alerted to the situation.
After being confronted by three men in the building, police said Mananno returned fire and fatally wounded the man who had entered the house. The other two men managed to escape. A.38 revolver with three rounds and a spent shell was recovered in the house and another .38 revolver was recovered outside.
Mananno told Stabroek News that he was asleep in his bedroom at the upper flat of the two-storey house when his father woke him up and told him that bandits were inside of their yard. He said that he immediately sprang out of bed and his father led him to the upstairs bathroom and they peeped through the tiny windows only to witness one of the intruders entering the house through the bathroom window in the lower flat.
“When I see that, I was gonna fire a warning shot but the decision was a few seconds too short because he was in the house before I could have fired the warning shot,” Mananno said. He noted that the intruder used a pipeline connected to the house to support his weight and was also helped by his two accomplices to gain entry into the house. He said that after the intruder entered the house, he decided to venture to the lower flat along with his father.
While downstairs, Mananno said that he was confronted by the intruder, who pointed his gun at him and fired a shot but missed him. The bullet from this shot entered the concrete wall at the side of the front door to the house. He added that the intruder then ran into the guestroom of the house and he assumed that the intruder thought the guestroom was the way out. According to Mananno, upon realising that he was trapped inside of the grilled room, the intruder decided to exit the room. However, Mananno said that by this time he had already positioned himself at the side of the room and when the intruder pointed his hands out of the doorway of the guest room and fired shots he missed hitting him.
Mananno said that the intruder, who had no idea that he was at the side of the room, stepped out of hiding. “He stepped out of the room and was looking around but he didn’t know that I was taking cover at the side of the room,” Mananno said, before adding that he took the opportunity to shoot his attacker when he left the room. He said that at an angle from the side of the room, he fired a shot using his 12-gauge shotgun, which hit the intruder to the left side of his face.
He added that the intruder immediately collapsed after he was shot. He said that he then left the house and went outside into the yard in an attempt to apprehend the other two men, who did not go into the house. But the two men had already left.
He said that his father, who was downstairs with him, went into the yard while he was cornering the intruder inside of the house. His father said that he was in the yard with the two intruders and saw when they climbed the back fence and left but was unable to do anything because he hadn’t anything to protect himself. He added that when the men climbed the fence to escape, a .38 revolver was dropped by one of them. The gun was later found in the yard. Mananno said that soon after the commotion, his neighbours called the police, who arrived about 1 1/2hr after.
When inside of the yard awaiting the police, Mananno said that he hid inside a fountain in the yard because he could not see around the entire yard clearly, since the family had multiple vehicles parked inside of the yard. He said that although his father told him that the remaining intruders had left, he couldn’t be sure that one of the men was not hiding under one of the cars parked in the yard.
He claimed that the intruder whom he shot was not dead, even up to the time the police arrived. He said that when officers arrived, they were scared to enter the house because he had told them that the intruder was still moving around inside the house.
He added that after he paved the way and escorted the officers into the house, they saw that the intruder was sitting upright inside of the house although the bullet had damaged his face badly.
Mananno further stated that when the officers apprehended the badly wounded intruder, they asked him whether he would like to be taken to the hospital and he nodded his head. However, the intruder has been confirmed as dead.
Mananno told this newspaper that he has never seen the man and has no idea who he is. Up to noon yesterday, Mananno told this newspaper that the police had not yet taken a statement from him.
The house is occupied by seven persons, including Mananno’s two minor children. He said that throughout the entire ordeal, the entire family stayed upstairs like he instructed. He added that while his children did not witness the shootout between himself and the gunman, he is still worried that his children may be emotionally traumatised by the ordeal.
He said that the family opted to clean the blood stains from the house before allowing the children to access the lower flat but his elder son managed to peek and saw the blood stains inside the house.
He said that blood was splattered all over their living room and there were bullet holes on the wall. He and his family, seeming angry, said that while they are not fond of the fact that a man was shot inside of their house, they are happy that they all lived through the traumatic event.
