Three arrested after No. 19 supermarket attack
-pregnant woman among several beaten by bandits
December 7 2018
Three persons were arrested yesterday in connection with the armed robbery of a Corentyne supermarket that left the owner, a pregnant woman and several residents all brutalised.
Supermarket owner Dewan Ramdeo, 33, of Lot 37 Number 19 Village, Corentyne, was robbed of $650,000 in cash and $50,000 worth of phone cards in the attack, which was carried out on Wednesday evening.
One of the three was detained for questioning on Wednesday evening, while two others were detained yesterday.
The men are from Savannah Park, New Amsterdam, and Adelphi Village, East Canje, Berbice.
According to Ramdeo, around 7.30 pm, five masked men, armed with three guns and two cutlasses, invaded his supermarket.
He was present with several customers at the time. “One individual come up with a gun and tell we get down, this is a stick up,” he recounted to Stabroek News.
According to the man, his daughter, 16, then attempted to escape when the men shouted that they would shoot her if she ran. “Them bring in all body and put them to lie down. When you try raise up, them a kick you in you head to put it down,” he added.
Ramdeo noted that he then heard the men entering the upper flat of his house, where a relative, who is five months pregnant, was sleeping. “Two a them went in the shop with we and me na see none a them by the gate but me hear me family wah deh upstairs a holla,” he said.
Ramdeo said it was at this point that he decided to make a run for it, since he saw no perpetrator at the gate. “One a them appear so fast and he try grabble me pon my shirt and he pelt the cutlass and it catch me from me neck, back and me still continue to run and the shirt tear out,” he recalled. “When me reach pon the street, me see me neighbour and me tell he thiefman and he take the other street and run out, then one (bandit) start run behind he and one run behind me. When me reach me back neighbour, me tell the lady bring the cutlass and me run pass she and he (bandit) end up face to face with she and he take way she phone and beat she. But me run through the back and call them boys at the back,” he added.
Ramdeo noted that he returned with a few of residents and he saw one bandit holding one of his neighbours to the ground. “When he see abie come, he start holla and tell the rest to get out. One run by the gate and me find one bottle and me pelt he in he back and he tell the other one, ‘Them a pelt bottle!’ Then one inside shout and say start shoot and them start shoot but abie run behind the truck and hide,” he further related.