ARMED BANDIT SHOT DEAD

- in early morning home invasion at Annandale
- accomplices escaped but two guns recovered

AN armed bandit was shot dead in an early morning home invasion yesterday at Annandale, East Coast Demerara and police are searching for his two accomplices.
The trio, all of whom were said to be armed had attempted a robbery but, up to press time, the deceased had not been identified, the Guyana Chronicle was told.

The bathroom area the bandit exited that caused him and the home owner to meet face to face before there was an exchange of gunfire.

At approximately 02:00 hrs one of the occupants of the Lot 10 Church Street, Annandale house got up to use the toilet when he heard their dogs barking aggressively.
The man then alerted his son who is a licensed firearm holder and a rural constable. The family also operates a taxi service and food business elsewhere.
This information was, subsequently, confirmed by a report from the Guyana Police Force (GPF) which stated that the shooting occurred when businessman Ishwar Jeffrey, 49, was aroused by the barking of his dogs.
He awoke his son, Mananno Jeffrey, who is a rural constable and a member of the Annandale North Community Policing Group, licensed to use the CPG’s gun.

This Leroy Smith photo shows the window the gunman who managed to enter the house used as his entry point.

The latter armed himself and, on checking, was confronted by the trio in the building.
Police said one of the three discharged a round at Mananno Jeffrey and he returned fire, fatally wounding the shooter while the other two managed to escape.
A .38 revolver with three rounds and a spent shell were recovered in the house and another .38 revolver was retrieved outside.
Speaking with this publication, Jeffery said that after he was alerted by his father of the presence of the three men, he too looked outside and by that time one of the men was observed forcing himself through a bathroom window to get into the house.
The man said that he hurried to the lower flat of the house by using the inside stairs and while he was half way down the stairs he encountered the bandit who had already made his way through the window. The young man pointed out that the intruder pointed a gun at him

The house the men attempted to rob yesterday morning when one of them was shot dead while the other two escaped

after spotting him but he in turn opened fire on the man, missing him in the process.
According to him, the bandit then ran down the stairs and concealed himself in a room in the lower flat of the building intending to escape. However, that was not possible since unlike the window the man used to gain entry into the house, the bedroom windows were all grilled.
Jeffery said that knowing very well that the bandit could not escape using the windows in the room, he waited patiently outside the room for the man to exit. He said that the intruder spent about five seconds in the room and then fired a warning shot before attempting to exit the room.
According to Jeffery, he was not fazed by the shot since he had already taken cover and was just waiting for the man to exit the room. As the intruder exited the room, Jeffery said that he shot the man in the jaw severing his tongue and shattering his teeth and gum in the process.
The Chronicle was told by the man that after he shot the first bandit in the home he dashed outside to confront the other two but they had already scaled the fence and made good their escape leaving a .38 revolver behind.
Back in the house the man said that the intruder was still alive and was sitting up. The police arrived like one and half hours after the incident and they asked the man if he wanted to go to the hospital to which he responded in the positive.
Jeffery showed this newspaper the window through which the man entered the home and even pointed us to a bullet hole which was left in the wall after the bandit fired his warning shot before he thought it was safe to exit the room.
A total of seven persons lived in the house which was targeted – five adults and two children ages eight and four years old.
The police are continuing their investigation into the matter even as the search is on for the two persons who escaped. The police are also set to send the recovered weapons for ballistic tests to see if they were used in any other gun crimes.

(By Leroy Smith)