An armed robbery victim has taken to social media to criticize the Guyana Police Force, specifically the Ruimveldt Police Station, for a poor and delayed response to his plight and by extension inadequate investigation.
In a Facebook post, overseas-based Guyanese Nubi Archer shared CCTV clips that detailed the robbery that took place three weeks ago. The robbers targeted three individuals who were with him in the building, taking $60,000 in cash and two cell phones. Archer could be seen walking to a car and he said that was because he saw the robbers, who were fully hooded, masked, and barefoot but did not expect them to start shooting.
Archer, who managed to escape without being shot, said that the spent shells from the shots fired remained at the scene for hours without any police response. Further, he said he learned that the robbers had targeted three other individuals before reaching his group.
Archer said after he caught one of the suspects, “they chased me down…, and they ran me into an empty lot with nowhere to go. But by then, the gun was empty. After running back to the road, my female cousin saw me and called the police when I told her what was going on.”
Archer further explained that the owner of the building where the men first approached them took 30 minutes to arrive, and the CCTV feed was viewed in the victims’ presence. However, despite repeated calls to the police there was no response for over an hour. The owner of the building then went to the police station, where he found out that no officers were available. It was not until four hours later that a detective from the Crimi-nal Investigation Depart-ment arrived.
Archer expressed frustration at the police not providing him with information about the suspects. “Because I told you that these guys saw my face and literally said, ‘We gon’ kill he mudda @#$%^’. So at least let me know who the suspects are, because nobody not gonna see me on the road and shoot me, and I not even expecting them,” he said.
Archer contrasted his experience with the swift response to a robbery involving Chinese nationals at a supermarket. He added that his story was shared on social media because he felt the police’s response was inadequate, especially given his professional background and efforts to help his community in Guyana.
“The reason I never came to social media with this in the first place is because of the nature of my visit to Guyana. I didn’t even report it to my medical school because I knew I wasn’t targeted, and they probably would have looked at Guyana differently. I also wasn’t transparent with the hospital I was working at about this matter because I didn’t want them to report it to my school either. They knew someone tried to rob me, but I never told them shots were fired,” he wrote.