Villagers, police in standoff after cops accused of robbery

January 27, 2014 | By KNews | Filed Under News

Police and residents of Number 48 Village, Berbice  were up to late last night engaged in a standoff following a robbery which the police are accused as the perpetrators. The residents blocked a police car that had turned up with ranks at the robbery scene after accusing them of carrying out the robbery on a supermarket run by Lallbachan Ramdeen and his wife at about 19:30 hours. But the police are insisting that the residents are overacting since the ranks who were on patrol duty, had merely responded to the report of robbery and were nowhere near the scene when it occurred. Earlier last night the proprietor of the supermarket and his wife were about to close their business when four men each armed with a “long gun” forced their way in and held them at gunpoint. According to the couple’s daughter, Sabo Ramdeen, the men who were all masked proceeded to beat the couple while demanding cash and jewellery. When their demand was met with some reluctance from the couple, the bandits placed them to lie on the ground. They then began discharging rounds indiscriminately from their weapons, shattering several items in the supermarket as they terrorized their victims. “My mother say she told them to stop shooting, ‘I gon give y’all everything’,” the couple’s daughter related. The men were eventually handed about $1M in cash and jewellery, along with a quantity of cellular phone and land line cards. They then fled the scene. The police were summoned but by the time they arrived the men had vanished. According to an eyewitness, the car in which the police ranks subsequently arrived was earlier seen traversing the area where the robbery had taken place and although, residents tried to stop it to report the robbery, it sped away. “The car pass and head towards New Amsterdam side, then pass back and head towards Skeldon side. People flag it down and it did not stop. All the time the robbery was taking place,” the eyewitness explained. He said after the bandits had fled the scene, residents saw the same “police” car past back and head towards New Amsterdam. A few minutes later “the same car eventually returned to the scene with four ranks inside.” There and then the residents claimed that they were the perpetrators, and surrounded their car. Residents believe that the same four men had committed another robbery last Thursday in the adjoining village and since no one has been captured, they are convinced that the perpetrators are police ranks. “Was the same way it happen in Number 47 last week. It is overbearing now. People have to know about this,” the eyewitness told Kaieteur News. But a senior police officer who later went to the scene to ease the tension, gave a different version of the events. He claimed that the police who first responded to the scene were on patrol in the Number 59 area when they received a report about a robbery at Number 48 Village. “They responded and when they got there, the people accused them of the robbery and blocked the road with a truck. We eventually got them to move the truck but they blocked the car and refused to move,” the police official told this newspaper last night. Up to midnight, the standoff was still in effect.