Two bandits, who robbed Bourda Market stall holders of $500,000 on Monday evening, were subsequently apprehended with the assistance of public-spirited citizens and are currently in custody.
Stabroek News understands that the incident occurred around 23:00 hrs in the vicinity of Orange Walk and Robb Street, whilst Wayne Miller, 51, and Darmenna Wong, 43 of Block ‘Y’, Section ‘C’, Grove, East Bank Demerara (EBD) were in the process of closing their stall for the day.
The Guyana Police Force said in a press release that investigations have so far revealed that Miller and Wong were at their stall when they were approached by the men who robbed them of the cash.
According to the release, an alarm was raised and the suspects were apprehended by public-spirited citizens.
The police were summoned and one 9 mm pistol and five live matching rounds were found in the possession of one suspect.
Speaking to this newspaper from outside his stall yesterday afternoon, Miller who has been operating the business for a number of years described the incident as life-threatening.
He explained that he and his wife were in the process of closing up the stall when they were confronted by the men, who were not masked. One of the bandits entered the stall and held him at gunpoint while the other one stood outside and choked his wife.
“He ask me where money deh. Let me must pass it over, so right away I point to the bag which contained the money and they grabbed it and run up the road,” Miller recalled. Some of the money was to pay his staff, he said.
As the men ran off the couple raised an alarm and Miller along with public-spirited persons chased after the suspects. At this point, there was an exchange of gunfire.
“They fire two shots in my direction and I fire back,” he said, “but after realizing that things could get worse, I decided to take another direction where I manage to get the gunman.”
He added, “I is the one who arrest the first suspect and hand him over the police.” The other suspect was captured shortly after with the assistance of public-spirited citizens.
“I could have react more, because after they done robbing me, they fired two shots. They did looking to kill people but I had my wife out here and my three-year-old daughter in the car sleeping so I didn’t really do much,” he said.
The duo are currently in custody assisting with investigations and charges are likely to be laid soon.
