Businessman blasts gunman in home invasion – guns recovered
A bandit is now fighting for his life in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation (GPHC) following a 20 minute gun-battle between him and an Annandale, East Coast Demerara (ECD) businessman whom he tried to rob in the wee hours of yesterday morning.
The house where the bandit was shot.
The incident occurred at around 02:00hrs at Lot 10 Church Street, Annandale, ECD. The gunman has been identified as 28-year-old Duston La Flore of Tucville. He was shot once to his lower right side face and is now on a life support machine at the institution. When this newspaper visited the hospital yesterday, three females were seen crying outside the ICU. They claimed that they did not know what happened and refused to speak to this publication. Kaieteur News understands that the bandit gained entry into the businessman, Mananno Jeffrey’s home through an open window in the family’s bathroom located in the bottom flat of the two -storey building. Jeffrey, 31, is a Rural Constable and a member of the Annandale North Community Policing Group and is licensed to use the Policing Group’s firearm. Police in a statement said that the businessman fatally shot the home invader but up to press time, the bandit was a patient under police guard, at the hospital. The police also said that they have recovered two .38 revolvers with three rounds and a spent shell. One of the guns was recovered inside the house and the other in the yard. Yesterday during an interview with this newspaper, the businessman explained that his father, Ishwar Jeffrey woke him up and informed him that three men were in the yard. “He went to urinate in the bathroom upstairs and he heard some strange sounds and when he peeped through the downstairs window, he saw the three men trying to get into the house,” the businessman explained. He added that he was about to fire a warning shot but noticed that one of the bandits had already gotten into his home. “I went downstairs but was confronted by this guy. It was me and him face to face and he had a gun in his hand.” A still traumatized Jeffrey posited that he fired a shot at the bandit but missed. “When I fired the shot, he run in the guest room (located in the lower flat) and was shaking the grill hard, hard and like he realize the only way he could have escape was through the same bathroom window.” According to the 31-year-old man who operates a food stall and owns a fishing boat, the bandit then peeked out the room and fired a shot. “He had no idea that I was hiding at the side of the wall. So when he fired the shot, he came out the room, pointing his gun straight and I was right at the side of him but he didn’t see me and I fired the shot.” “He fall down and I run out to look for the other two men but they had already escaped,” Jeffrey stressed. He added that police officers arrived at his home about one and a half hours later and took the badly injured man to the hospital. The businessman said that this is the first time gunmen tried to rob him.
