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• flee with three cell phones
The quiet community in the Ruby Backdam, East Bank Essequibo , was plunged into mourning following the brutal slaying of 26-year old Timothy Singh during a daring robbery staged by five gunmen.
Singh was shot in the chest at point blank range when he objected to the men robbing his parents and other siblings.
His brother, 17-year old Ravindra, escaped with a grazing gunshot wound to his back when one of the bandits discharged a round at him during the ordeal.
The family was preparing to take their farm produce to the Parika Market when the gunmen struck.
According to Ravindra Singh, the family had awoke at around 01:00 hours and were loading their boat when the bandits, dressed in black and wearing ski-masks, pounced on them.
“I been brushing me teeth downstairs, and when I come to de steps, three men rush in de yard and stick me up. When I see dem, I start fuh scream and they tell me don't mek no noise.
Then one ah dem put a gun to me head,” Ravindra Singh recalled.
He said that his father who had just awakened, was resting in a hammock when two other gunmen attacked him. The five gunmen then took Ravindra and his father upstairs.
By this time the young man's mother, Rajama, and another brother, Timothy, were aroused by his screams and rushed to the front door to see what was happening.
They too were confronted by the gunmen who forced the family back into their house.
The men then began demanding cash and jewelry after putting the family to sit down in a large sofa in the living room.
The response was slow and the men proceeded to beat the head of the home in his head with a gun.
“They even stab he ( the father) in he back. Den they see we had some cell phones pon de chair and they snatch it up,” Ravindra said.
The young man's mother, Rajama Singh, said that the bandits also struck her in the head and maintained their demand for cash and jewelry.
“They ask me whey de money deh and me tell dem dat ‘we ain't gat no money in dis house',” Rajama Singh said, while trying to hold back her tears.
While the bandits were beating the parents, the eldest son, Timothy, got up and began pleading forcefully with the men to stop.
“They tell he, he talking too much, and one ah dem put de gun to he chest and shoot he. When he fall back in de chair, de man fire a shot at me, but I turn and de bullet graze me back,” Ravindra Singh recalled.
The bullet hole where the round struck was still visible when Kaieteur News visited the home yesterday evening. The shooting led to some confusion among the bandits who apparently panicked.
Ravindra said that he, his father and two other siblings began wrestling with two of the men and eventually managed to force them out of the house.
“I hold on pon one ah dem hand and we push dem out de house and lock de door.”
He said the men then ran away, firing several shots as they fled.
When they were sure that the men had left the area, the family picked up the mortally wounded Timothy Singh and put him in their boat en route to the West Demerara Regional Hospital . However, the gunshot wound had already taken its toll. Singh was pronounced dead on arrival.
“They shoot me baby in he chest. This is de fuss time dat something like dis happen to we. We don't have trouble with anybody,” Rajama Singh cried. “It hurtful fuh know how they shoot me child. We does wuk hard in we farm. Dem people who hurt me child, God will hurt them,” Rajama Singh cried while being consoled by relatives.
Neighbours also expressed surprise that bandits had struck with such deadly force in their remote community.
“We nah gat road and dem ah come. Better de road stay so,” one neighbour remarked.
“We does seh that de dam bad and bandits nah come,” another resident said.
Police were summoned to the scene at daybreak, and they managed to recover a spent shell from what appears to be a 9mm.
So far no one has been arrested.
Friday, February 11, 2005
Gunmen rob businessman
of $800,000
at Meadow Bank wharf
A businessman who went to the Meadow Bank Wharf to purchase fish at 06:30 hrs yesterday was forced to part with almost a million dollars after two gunmen attacked him.
Police said that Abdul Jameer Shakur, 24, a cash crop farmer, had just emerged from his pickup after parking in the fisheries compound when the two men pounced on him.
The men pressed handguns to his head and relieved him of a pouch containing $800,000.
They also found a further $60,000 on the businessman's person, but overlooked a licensed firearm that their victim had in his possession at the time.
As the men were fleeing, Shakur whipped out his handgun and discharged some rounds in their direction, but missed.
Police said the bandits took refuge in the Agricola canefields.
They were still at large at press time.
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