A Cumberland Village, East Canje Berbice businessman remains hospitalized at the New Amsterdam Public Hospital after he was shot by bandits who invaded his business on Friday evening.
Jagdeo Phillips, who was getting ready to celebrate his fortieth birthday yesterday, sustained a gunshot injury to his belly during the robbery as he attempted to repel the four armed bandits.
According to relatives, while Jagdeo was responding to treatment, doctors have since informed them that something “wrong with his lungs.”
According to Phillips’s son, Nicholas Phillips, 18, around 11 pm on Friday, his father was in the hammock when the four bandits entered the premises where the business, B Hussain – a grocery, restaurant and beer garden, is located.
At that time, the young man, his father, his mother, grandmother, and younger sister were present at the house.
“I was bathing at the back and I hear a screaming and when I rush in the kitchen it was two man, one pointing the gun towards me and one pointing the gun towards my sister and them ask me wah me go do.”
According to Nicholas, the robbery was carried out by four men all armed with guns while one was also armed with a cutlass. He said they wore face masks and hoodies and one also wore a skirt.
Stabroek News was told that Jagdeo was in the hammock when the men entered and immediately approached him and began ordering him to remove his jewellery, however, the businessman attempted to fight back.
Based on CCTV footage, the businessman used a spade to attempt to deal lashes to the perpetrators during which they shot him. “They fire the gun three times but two times it snap and then one time it catch my father”, Nicholas relayed.
Although shot, Jagdeo continued to fight back until the men grabbed his jewellery and wallet and escaped.
The bandits carted off $200,000 in cash, one gold chain worth $200,000, one gold band and one silver band along with the money the business had earned for the day which was inside of the shop.
Commander of Region Six, Shivpersaud Bacchus, yesterday said that no one had been arrested and investigations are continuing.
