The police are investigating the circumstances surrounding an incident in which a
five-member family of Bath, West Coast Berbice, was on Sunday night beaten and robbed by three gunmen, and two motor cars in proximity were torched.
According to the female shop owner (who asked not to be named), she operates a grocery store and beer garden on her premises, and was in the shop around 22:00hrs (10pm), attending to two patrons. Her husband was at the time in the inner portion of the building sorting some bills to be dealt with the following day, while her two teenage daughters were watching television and six-year-old son was asleep.
It was then that three men armed with handguns entered the premises and began beating the two patrons.
After assaulting the patrons, two of the men proceeded to force their way into the dwelling via a side door, while the third man kept guard over the two patrons who were huddled in a corner. The men brutally assaulted the woman’s husband and two daughters before forcing them to lie on the floor and demanding that they remain quiet.
Amid threats to the woman, the men demanded money, telling her that they had information on her, and that she must hand over all the gold and money she had. All she could do was plead with the men and watch them ransack the shop.
The men eventually stumbled upon sixty thousand dollars in cash which she had in a purse, and they took away an undisclosed sum from the drawer where cash is normally kept.
The men also relieved each family member of whatever jewellery they were wearing, as well as five cellular phones.
According to the traumatized shopkeeper, everything happened very quickly, and the men left after spending less than fifteen minutes on the property.
The youngest of the family, the six year old boy, has been left traumatized by the ordeal, the shop owner said.
While the victims are happy to have escaped serious injuries, one of the patrons can count himself as being very unfortunate. Not only did the robbers use his car in their escape bid, the car was taken into the Hopetown cemetery and set alight.
The burnt-out car was discovered early Monday morning with documents nearby conforming ownership.
When the police responded to the report of the robbery on Sunday night, they were on time to witness a car on fire a short distance away from where the robbery was committed, and it is believed that the gunmen may have used that car to get to their objective, and then set it on fire having accomplished their mission.
The police are continuing their investigations.
