A would-be robber is now in police custody after a bid to rob a security guard on Thursday night resulted in him being accidentally shot by his accomplice.
The attack occurred around 11.30 pm on Thursday, while the intended victim, identified only as a 39-year-old security guard, was walking along the Bachelor’s Adventure Public Road, on the East Coast of Demerara.
The wounded bandit sustained a gunshot wound to his right thigh. He was escorted to the Georgetown Public Hospital (GPH), where he remains a patient under police guard.
His accomplice, who inflicted the wound, managed to flee the scene by running through a nearby cemetery. He is yet to be apprehended.
The police, in a press statement, said that the two bandits, one of whom was armed with a handgun, were on motorcycle, CE 7015, when they approached the guard.
“The pillion rider then whipped out a handgun and was proceeding to rob him. A struggle ensued between [the guard] and the gunman during which the bandit discharged a round which struck his accomplice,” the statement added.
The guard then managed to disarm the gunman, who fled the scene.
When Stabroek News visited the scene yesterday, a relative of the guard, who wished not to be named, said she was at home when she heard the gunshot. Upon enquiring, the woman said she learnt that the guard had just exited a minibus and was about to cross the road when the bandits accosted him. “He barely had about $2,500 on he because he does work security in the day and conductor in the afternoon,” she said. “He was a policeman back in the days, so he fight them off,” she added.
She added that police said they had been on the hunt for the duo, who allegedly robbed a number of persons in the area and surrounding communities. “When the police come on the scene and see he [the injured bandit] right away, they say that they had a description of him and the other one for some robberies,” she added.
The relative voiced fear for the guard, while noting that since the incident, the family has been receiving threats. “Somebody tell he that three boys went in some bus and they went talking how they will finish he off,” she explained.
She added that they have also noticed several strange movements in front their premises. “One time somebody tell me that a car turn up in front here [the house] and they went watching around and suh,” she said. “Right now he really scared and it ain’t easy,” she added.
The motorcycle belonging to the bandits has been impounded and the police recovered a snub-nosed .32 revolver with one spent shell at the scene of the crime.
