Gunmen rob restaurant owner, customers

In brazen West Berbice attack

Two armed men on Sunday evening carried out a brazen robbery on two customers and the owner of a restaurant and bar located at Bath Settlement, West Coast Berbice.
According to reports received, the two armed men entered the drinking spot about 22:00h and ordered two bottles of beer.
At the time, the bar had two occupants, 25-year-old Ryan Hiralall, a mechanic, and 26-year-old Chrisendat Sureshpaul. They were reportedly imbibing.
After the suspects collected their beer, they sat at a table close to Hiralall and Chrisendat. Guyana Times understands that less than five minutes later, one of the men held Hiralall and Chrisendat at gunpoint and ordered them into the yard where they were further instructed to lay face down on the ground.
The bandits then proceeded to relieve Hiralall of his personal belongings and cash. He was reportedly relieved of his cellphone, gold and silver jewellery, and an undisclosed sum of cash. One of the bandits continued to hold the two customers at gunpoint, while the other attacked the owner of the business, Lolitta Beni, and demanded cash and jewellery.
Out of fear, the woman reportedly handed over a handbag to the man. She told detectives the bag contained about $60,000 in cash, an electronic tablet, one Samsung Galaxy phone and a quantity of jewellery.
After collecting the bag, the gunman ran through the kitchen door, grabbed his accomplice and they escaped in Hiralall’s Toyota Allion motor car, registration number PMM 6756. The car was reportedly parked on the parapet in front of the restaurant and bar.
This publication was told that the car used by the bandits to reach the location was abandoned some distance away. When contacted, Commander of Police B Division (Berbice), Assistant Commissioner Ian Amsterdam confirmed that the robbery did take place and that the Police were working on several leads as they continued their investigations.
A Police source told this publication that the registration number on the abandoned car seemed fake and as such, enquiries are being made with the Guyana Revenue Authority. He noted that the car was taken to the Fort Wellington Police Station where it is being dusted for fingerprints.