Police are currently seeking to identify and locate three-gun toting bandits, who beat and robbed members of a family during a home invasion at Golden Grove, East Bank Demerara on Friday evening.
The attack, which began around 7 pm and lasted for about half an hour, left construction worker Robin Ramdyal, 49, and his sister, domestic worker Nomenia Ramdyal, 44, both nursing injuries.
Police spokesman Jairam Ramlakhan, in a brief statement yesterday, confirmed the attack and he said “stringent” efforts are being made to apprehend the three suspects, who remained on the lam up to yesterday afternoon.
The bandits escaped with US$500, GY$70,000, three cell phones, two gold chains, a silver band and documents belonging to Nomenia and her deceased husband, including their ID cards.
The siblings and Nomenia’s son, Navindra Kumar, live at the Lot 185 Section A, Block Y, Golden Grove, house.
Kumar, however, was at work at the time robbery.
According to Robin, he was sitting on a bench outside his home when the bandits held him at gunpoint.
“Them tell meh don’t mek noise and don’t holler fuh nobody come and leh we go inside, them gah geh the money and jewellery,” Robin recounted to Sunday Stabroek
He said although he told the bandits he had no money or jewellery in the house, they still insisted on going inside.
At the time, Nomenia and their step-sister, who was visiting, were engaged in a conversation in the house.
Once inside, Robin said, the bandits placed him to lay on the ground before tying him up. “And them man start beat me and beat me sista them and them tell me don’t look in them face,” he added.
Robin said the bandits continually asked him for jewellery although he told them he didn’t have any. “Them ask me fuh the money and the jewellery. But where me guh get them thing dah from? We had lil money home hay, yes and dah them carry,” he said.
‘I beg them not to kill me’
Meanwhile, Nomenia said when she was approached by a bandit, she and her step-sister were sitting in the hallway facing each other.
“I see a guy come in… he come in with a gun and he point it to me and he seh ‘Give me the money and the gold!’ And when I see… when he ask meh fuh the money and gold, me look at he like and he seh, ‘Don’t look at me! I want the money and gold!’ And I keep telling he that how me ain’t got gold, that I got some money in the wardrobe, leh he guh fuh it,” Nomenia recalled.
She said at this point, the bandit ordered that she too lay flat on the ground and not make any sound. They had already tied up Robin and their step-sister. “He seh get up and lie down deh (floor) and don’t holler. Me lie down. He gone in the wardrobe and he ain’t find the money. He come out back and he hold me and he carry me and I give he the purse with the money. He ask me weh the gold deh and me seh me ain’t got no gold and like after that me see two ah them come in with meh brother (Robin) and them put he fuh lie down with meh sista and them tie them up (together),” Nomenia further related.
She said the bandits also repeatedly asked her for gold. “Then he ask me again fuh the gold and meh seh me ain’t got no gold and then he gone in the room and he geh the bowl; a bowl meh had meh son (Kumar) two chain (gold) in and a silver band and he carry dah and with me two ring along with the money and then the two other guy after them tie up meh brother and step sister, the two ah them gone in the room and them deh ransack the hall, he pull out all the draw and suh whatever,” she said.
Nomenia added that the men asked her again for the rest of the money and after she told them there was no more, one of them kicked her in her stomach and instructed the other to shoot her.
Nomenia said she begged the bandits not to kill her. “One ah them (bandits) seh, ‘Shoot she! Kill she! She gah fuh find the money.’ Meh beg them. Meh seh, ‘Ayo nah kill meh but ayo tek everything ayo want. Meh wuk hard and ayo nah kill meh,’” Nomenia tearfully said as she reflected on what transpired.
‘Set up’
Nomenia said after she pleaded with the bandits, they left. She then freed herself and her siblings before alerting a neighbour to the robbery.
“Me whole skin did cover in share blood and meh tell she meh want a phone call and meh call one friend in Eccles and like she call other people and I don’t know who call the police,” she said.
Her friend, she said, called Kumar who was about to reach home. He transported them to the police station and the hospital.
Both Nomenia and Robin, who were gun-butted to their heads by the bandits, believe that the robbers had information about them and their house based on the manner in which they operated. She noted that the men seem to be determined to get items belonging to her husband, who passed away in June of last year. “I can’t see they beat me and me brother (Robin) and them ain’t do she (their step-sister) nothing, them just tie she up with he (Robin),” she said.
Nomenia added that her ID card and the ID cards belonging to her late husband and Robin were together in a purse but the bandits only took her and her husband’s cards.
They also took NIS documents. “Them tek out she (Nomenia) ID card, she husband ID card and lef me own. Them check me passport, tek out me passport and them lef it back. Is a set-up”, Robin said.
He further that the bandits operated like they knew the house. “These guys (bandits) come… well organised. Like them know the place because how these guys act, they act real on time,” he pointed out.
Nomenia said the cash the bandits escaped with was money which she had saved. She noted that the house they are living in is unfinished and they were trying to complete it with the savings.
