A cashier and another staff of the Prance Chinese Supermarket at Crown Dam, Industry, East Coast Demerara were on Thursday beaten as armed men carried out a brazen daylight robbery on the establishment.
Based on reports, four men on two Honda CG motorcycles pulled up in front of the supermarket, two of them kept guard while the others rushed into the business place, held the cashier and the owner at gunpoint, and demanded money. At the time of the robbery, around 14:30h, there were no customers in the supermarket.
One of the bandits then gun-butted the cashier and continued to make demands. Another worker who was close by was also struck to the head. Out of fear, the cashier opened the register and handed over the money and a quantity of phone cards.
Not satisfied, the bandit went around the cashier’s counter and pulled out a bag containing an undisclosed sum of money. He reportedly placed the bag on the counter and the second gunman collected it, as he waved his gun at the cashier, threatening her. The perpetrators then left the supermarket, jumped onto the waiting motorcycles and fled the scene.
The Police were immediately summoned and the injured workers were taken to the hospital. The Police have since retrieved the surveillance footage that captured the entire episode. It is believed that the men were monitoring the business place for some time based on how they operated and more so, they knew exactly where the money bag was kept. Up to late Thursday afternoon, the Police were reviewing the CCTV footage.
Over the past weeks, several businesses owned by Chinese nationals were robbed. Only recently, three gunmen robbed a newly opened supermarket at Land of Canaan, East Bank Demerara.
The men posed as customers and entered the Good Life Supermarket, but soon after held a staff member at gunpoint. The other men started to bag off valuable items taken from the customers and proprietors. They also jumped over the counter and picked up a bag containing at least 0,000 in cash, a quantity of cigarettes and phone cards.
In addition, they relieved the proprietor of two iPhone 6s, as well as customers of Samsung and Blu smartphones.
