TWO suspects in the brazen robbery committed at J. Singh & Sons Supercenter at Mahaicony East Coast Demerara, Wednesday evening were arrested in the Mahaicony area yesterday morning. According to reports, the two suspects were at the time of their apprehension hiding in a bushy area which farmers were clearing with cutlasses. One of the suspects was accidently chopped while hiding under some leaves while the other bandit was held later after being shot by the police as he made a dash to freedom.

Workers and other friends of the business couple present at the premises yesterday afternoon.

Both of them along with another suspect who was apprehended on Wednesday after they committed the robbery remain at the Georgetown Public Hospital under police guard. The third suspect was severely beaten by angry residents who had come out to assist in apprehending the men.
Speaking with the Guyana Chronicle yesterday afternoon with a partly swollen and black and blue right eye, proprietress Lakerany Singh said that she along with two other staff members and her son were at the business premises, where her home is also located, when the bandits arrived.
She said they were four bandits and as they entered her premises she bid them ‘good afternoon’ but only two of them responded before making their way into her supermarket. The woman said that within seconds the men began putting on white gloves and before she knew it they were ordering everyone to be silent as they took control of the business place.
As the men were pulling on their gloves, two customers who were about to enter the store saw them and made an about turn and reportedly made contact with the police at Mahaicony Police Station.

However, it took the police some two hours to arrive at the location although they are just five minutes’ drive away from the supermarket that was being robbed according to the business woman. And during this time, the victims were being brutalized at the hands of the gun and knife-wielding bandits.

The Mahaica supermarket that was robbed on Wednesday afternoon.

During the robbery, the victims were ordered to lie on the floor as their valuables were stripped from them. The proprietress who pretended to be just another worker at the establishment kept denying that she was the owner while the men demanded to know the whereabouts of the owner and the location of the money and other valuables.
The woman’s son who was the cashier at the time was held up by one of the bandits who demanded that he hand over the day’s sales and he complied. The men also demanded the keys to the upper flat of the building and that was also handed over.
Once upstairs the men ransacked the place while the proprietress and another employee were held in a room where one of the bandits saw the CCTV system and became enraged as he demanded the disc. He then began beating the woman to the point that she was bleeding and almost blacked out.
The bandits subsequently made their escape using the woman’s car which was later abandoned after the businesswoman’s son and her husband gave chase.
The Guyana Chronicle observed yesterday that the police were at Mahaicony after they had received information that one of the suspects in the robbery was hiding. The police had one of their K-9 dogs and a metal detector when they were able to unearth a 9MM pistol. The police investigations into the matter are ongoing.

The car in which the bandits fled after the brazen robbery at the Mahaica supermarket.

The police team that began work at 04:00hrs yesterday morning and captured two of the bandits. The Guyana Chronicle found them camping along the Mahaicony public road yesterday afternoon.