Armed bandits rob Enterprise grocer, customers – police fail to lift fingerprints 24 hours after robbery
ENTERPRISE businessman Hardat Kisseur was up to late yesterday afternoon counting the losses he incurred after three bandits, armed with a gun, cutlass and hammer, invaded his business place on Wednesday evening. He and his customers were terrorised and robbed.Kisseur told the Guyana Chronicle yesterday morning that the bandits struck a mere 10 minutes before the store closed for business for that day. He said the establishment, “Kisseur Grocery Store,” has been in existence for several years now, but was initially closed down after the original owner migrated following a similar incident.
He explained that on Wednesday afternoon, he observed that two strange men had ordered a bag of feed from his shop. Since the men were strangers, he did what he usually does: keep a close eye on them.
However, another accomplice had placed himself at the delivery entrance, and the businessman was unaware of his presence. Kisseur said that after his employee opened the door to deliver the feed, the third accomplice, whose name was given as Mervin and who is familiar with the businessman, forced his way into the shop by placing a gun to the employee’s head.
The two strange men then made their way into the shop, and Kisseur saw that one was armed with a cutlass and the other was making use of a hammer in the shop, which also operates a semi-hardware department.
Mervin, reportedly on bail for several robberies-under-arms offences, began demanding cash and a firearm. The known character, according to the businessman, is familiar with him and his brother. He said Mervin knows that he has a brother who carries a firearm, but that brother is not in the country, so the firearm has been lodged at the police station.
Mervin then ordered one of his accomplices to empty the drawer of the day’s sales. Dissatisfied, the men demanded more money, even as they began brutalising the man and his staff to tell them where the rest of the cash was.
The bandits could have accessed the upper flat of the house from inside the shop, but they chose to stay in the lower flat, which the ransacked as they looked for additional cash. The entire ordeal lasted for approximately 30 minutes, and has left Kisseur and his family and workers traumatised.
The bandits were able to make off with the day’s sales of more than two hundred thousand dollars, plus dozens of phone cards valued at more than $250,000 dollars and an undisclosed sum of cash which the businessman had in an attachÉ case, since he had earlier in the day returned from purchasing stocks and had other monies to purchase more stocks for his business.
After the robbery, the bandits walked Kisseur and his staff to the front of the store and onto the roadway before releasing them as they walked a distance to the corner and joined a waiting car in which they fled the area.
Up to late Thursday evening, police from the Vigilance Police Station had failed to uplift any fingerprints from the scene of the crime. This is even as the businessman had informed them that one of the bandits was a known character and someone who was presently on bail for robbery under arms.
Kisseur is of the view that with him being able to identify one of the men and because the bandits had ransacked his place without using gloves, the police would not have had problems lifting prints from the scene and connecting the known character to the crime.
When this publication last evening contacted Divisional Commander Marlon Chapman on the issue of the ranks’ failure to uplift prints from the scene, he sounded very appalled. He said the development was both embarrassing and disappointing, and he promised to look into the matter immediately after discontinuing his telephone conversation with this publication.
The police are continuing their investigation into the matter.
By Leroy Smith
