A Black Bush Polder rice farmer and his family were forced to hide in the bushes next to their home on Thursday evening, after a gang of bandits attacked, beat and robbed them around 8.15 pm.
Lennox Ramcharran, 41, of Lot 15 Johanna South, Black Bush Polder, yesterday explained, that he was at home with his wife and two children, ages 18 and 21 years, when he heard his dogs suddenly barking nonstop. He said he decided to head into his backyard and investigate when he suddenly saw, “a man run out from underneath a tree and lash me down, two more man been deh and them tie up my hand.”
Ramcharran explained, that he was assaulted about the body and kept in the backyard for a short while. “Me son come down to bathe and a call pon me but me can’t answer he and me son run up back upstairs.”
According to the man, after his son noticed persons in their backyard he immediately tried to call the Mibicuri Police Station. However, he said, they did not get onto the police at that time. “He called somebody [a relative] and them call the police but them [police] couldn’t come cause them say them na have vehicle.”
He continued that at that point, the bandits dragged him up the backstairs into his kitchen located in the upper flat of the house, where they lashed him several times with a gun in his head.
He added, that he and his son were tied up and placed to lie in the kitchen with kitchen towels thrown over their faces, while the bandits demanded cash and jewellery from his wife and daughter.
Although his wife handed over $300,000 in cash and a quantity of jewellery, Ramcharran said the bandits were dissatisfied and began to ransack his entire house.
While three bandits armed with “long guns” carried out the attack on the family in the house, Ramcharran said it seemed as though two armed bandits were outside standing at various locations as “look outs.”
The man explained that he suddenly heard a person from outside shouting to the bandits inside, “Police! Police!” which led to the bandits making an immediate escape. “Abie na see police, them say police and them go way.” In the course of their getaway, the bandits discharged several gunshots, Ramcharran noted.
However, the bandits grabbed on to the man’s 18-year-old daughter and held her in front of them as they made their way through the dam. He said his daughter was left a short distance away from the house after the bandits escaped. “Like them see police and them get away, me daughter say them left she down so.”
According to Ramcharran, after the bandits fled the scene, he along with his wife and son, jumped over the verandah located on the upper flat of the house and hid in some bushes next door. “I left them to hide and me cut across deh through the fence and come around to the back to look for my daughter and I see she coming and we hide.”
However, although the bandits escaped in fear that the police would catch up to them, Ramcharran said they hid for a long while before they saw two police officers on a motorcycle approaching their premises and it was then that they came out from the bushes.
Ramcharran sustained injuries to his head, back and arms, while his wife and daughter also sustained injuries to their hands and legs during the 45-minute long ordeal.
During Stabroek News’s visit to Ramcharran’s house, several armed police officers arrived in a vehicle to take his statement. Up to press time no arrest had been made.
Ramcharran opined that more investigative work needed to be done within the community as he believes that persons from the community may be involved. “It got to be them in contact with somebody here because how they know who fa rob, you can’t get one man a come from the road [outside of Black Bush Polder] to thief ya, it got to be right a Black Bush people, somebody got to link up you,” he suggested.
Furthermore, Ramcharran expressed his dissatisfaction with the fact that the police were unable to respond because they did not have a vehicle on the spot. “If them police had one vehicle them been catch them because when we call and if them been come them would a catch everything,” he said. “Them been get one vehicle and it bruk up, me na know which corner that thing deh, we na see the jeep one good time now.”
Additionally, residents in the community claimed, that when the Mibicuri Police Station had a vehicle, ranks would only patrol the main road during the day and only at certain hours of the night.
Several residents when questioned noted that they have never seen ranks, whether on vehicle, motorcycles or horses, patrolling the cross streets located in Black Bush Polder.
