Bandits posing as Police Officers beat, rob Herstelling family
One of the ransacked rooms at the Herstelling home
An East Bank Demerara man was briefly hospitalised after he was beaten by several armed men who posed as police to gain entry into the premises. According to reports gathered, around 02:45h Thursday, 5 bandits stormed the Lot 463 Herstelling home of Lalta, his wife Esther Sammy and their 21-year-old daughter.
Guyana Times understands that the gunmen arrived by car. The five men exited, four of whom kicked down the door to the house while the fifth kept watch. The men then held up the man and dealt him several blows to the back and chest with a cutlass. They then ordered the woman to kneel on the floor as they turned their attention on the daughter.
This publication was further told the bandits took the young lady into the upper flat of the house where they ransacked the bedrooms. They then carted off an undisclosed sum of money and a quantity of jewellery. One of the neighbours recalled what she witnessed.
“They run and kicked down de door and one of the man say we is police and say open de door so the man said why I must open me door for and dem run and kick down the door and go in and hole up de man,” the woman explained.
Eyewitnesses also said that as the robbery was unfolding they made repeated calls to the Providence Police Station but all were unsuccessful. It was sometime later that ranks reportedly attached to the Brickdam Police Station who were on patrol came and took the report.
“We couldn’t do anything because when we peep through we window, we see de gun, we couldn’t come out. We just put on de light and tek it off back… everybody calling [the Providence Police Station] dem seh de phone na working,” the woman said.
This newspaper was however made aware that when one of the eyewitnesses visited the Providence Station, two telephones were working.
The police are continuing their investigations but no arrests were made.
It was only Wednesday around noon that a Cuban vendor Maria Puig, 61, was shot to her right hand outside a store in Regent Street, Georgetown, after being robbed of $5000 cash. The bandits reportedly fled on a CG motorcycle.
Meanwhile, over the past week, both armed and unarmed bandits carried out over 20 robberies on several businesses in the Vreed-en-Hoop, West Coast Demerara. In many instances, excessive violence was used. The area’s Acting Divisional Commander, Leslie James met with stakeholders there where he related that more patrols will be set up at strategic locations.
