Town Clerk Royston King and his family were held at gun-point early yesterday morning when robbers broke into their home.
The two bandits shot at one of King’s sons during the attack and later escaped with cash and bags of chocolate. No one was hurt, although King said his family was traumatised by the experience.
Stabroek News was told that three persons were subsequently held yesterday morning in connection with the robbery and they are currently in police custody.
King told Stabroek News yesterday that two bandits removed several louvre panes from a window and gained access to the bottom flat of his two-storey house in North Ruimveldt.
The attack occurred around 2.10AM.
King’s youngest daughter, who had been studying prior to the attack, had noticed someone at the window. After she noticed the man, she subsequently asked “Who is you?” The man did not respond and the girl then ran upstairs to alert her father and the other occupants of the house. King, his wife and five of their children were in the house at the time of the attack.
After they were all alerted of the situation, they armed themselves with pieces of wood and bats and proceeded downstairs.
However, they found one of the bandits pointing a gun at them from the back door. One of King’s sons ran out of the house, after which the gunman fired two shots at him.
While the rest of the family ran upstairs, King’s wife was confronted by one of the men, who held her at gunpoint and demanded that she go upstairs and hand over their cash and jewellery. She, however, insisted that everything was downstairs in her bedroom and the men retraced their steps back down the stairs. The two bandits took $255,000, a cellular phone and two large packs of M&M candies from the house.
After the two bandits escaped with the cash and phone, one of King’s daughters called the phone and one of the men answered and said, “Massive, massive” and then ended the call.
One of King’s daughters recalled the frightening ordeal that lasted about 45 minutes between the time they noticed one of the men at the window and when the police responded. King’s son, who had managed to escape unscathed despite being shot at, ran to the North Ruimveldt police outpost. However, he was forced to make contact with another police station since the outpost had no vehicles available. He said he had to make contact with someone else to contact the East Ruimveldt outpost, which was not even opened. He was finally able to contact the Ruimveldt Police Station, which sent several police officers.
