A woman was shot in her leg yesterday when she tried to fight off a robber, who attacked her onboard a minibus during a stop at Eccles, East Bank Demerara.
Sharon Baldeo and her daughter tried to fight off the armed bandit, who had also been a passenger on the bus. He eventually shot the mother and escaped with her handbag, which contained a quantity of cash and a smartphone. The bandit was subsequently caught by police at Agricola, police said yesterday afternoon, while noting that he had been positively identified.
Baldeo, of Diamond Housing Scheme, sustained a gunshot that exited her right leg and bruised the other, her daughter, Nafeeza Yusuf, said.
The woman was treated at the Georgetown Public Hospital and was subsequently discharged.
The attack occurred around 1PM.
According to Yusuf, she and her mother had just exited the Republic Bank branch at Diamond and ventured onto the Diamond Public Road for a bus to transport them to Georgetown.
“We just come out the bank and a bus slow down and ask we if we going and we said yes and went in,” Yusuf recounted.
She explained that when they entered the bus, they chose a seat near to the back of the vehicle. The bandit was seated behind them in the back seat and about four other passengers were inside the bus at the time, she added.
According to Yusuf, when the bus reached Eccles, the bandit asked the conductor to stop the vehicle so that he could get off. However, before making his way out, Yusuf said, the man grabbed on to her bag and her mother’s but they refused to let go of the bags and they began to fight him off.
He then pulled out a gun and began to fire shots at them, one of which struck her mother, who released her bag. Baldeo’s bag contained $200,000 and iPhone.
Yusuf refused to let go of her bag. She said that the manner in which the man was looking at them in the bus had aroused their suspicions that he might want to rob them, so they were cautious when he was disembarking and they were not prepared to hand over the bags.
During the commotion in the minibus, the driver and conductor exited and ran for cover, Yusuf said. The other passengers, who included a schoolgirl, were not harmed.
After the robber escaped, the driver returned to the vehicle and a female passenger, who identified herself as a police officer, asked the bus driver to stop at the Agricola Police Station, where she informed her colleagues about the attack. The bus then proceeded to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH) with the injured Baldeo.
Meanwhile, police, in a statement, said the suspect was arrested in Agricola and charges are to be laid shortly.
A police source told Stabroek News that upon receipt of the report of the robbery, there was a prompt response, which led to the arrest of the suspect.
The source noted that the police swooped down on the suspect’s home, where 30 grammes of cannabis were retrieved.
The suspect is also expected sometime today to be placed on several other identification (ID) parades in connection with other armed robberies.
