…after being unable to respond to robberies in progress
One day after two daring robberies took place in Black Bush Polder, Berbice, and allegations that the police could not render assistance in one of the incidents due to the lack of transportation, the Mibicuri Police Station has been equipped with a vehicle.
Davi Ropnarine
Guyana Times understands that less than 24 hours after one of the families told the media that they were not helped when they sought assistance from law enforcement officials, a vehicle was sent to the police station.
However, Commander of B Division (Berbice), Paul Langevine, is claiming that police ranks could not have responded to the robbery which took place in Johanna North, Black Bush Polder, Berbice, on Friday last, because they were not notified about the incident.
Harmond Roopnarine
In an interview with Guyana Times on Saturday, the Commander stated that allegations that his ranks failed to execute their duties are not accurate but did not address the issue of lack of transportation.
“They [police] did not respond to that robbery because it was not reported. The police responded to one robbery, these two robberies were said to have occurred hours apart, they responded to one. But they could not respond to the other robber because they were not notified.”
Lennox Ramcharran
The Commander added that the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) team that was deployed to Berbice to aid in tackling the crime wave is under his command and that he would be the one to determine where to send them.
His denial of a report of the robbery comes in light of the fact that Berbicians are uncertain as to why the SWAT team that is in their region was not summoned to assist the families who were robbed on Thursday and Friday.
Meanwhile, another police source told this publication that one of the gunmen in the two robberies is believed to be the suspect that has been on the run for the Old Year’s night double murder in 2018 at Bush Lot village, Corentyne, Berbice.
B Division Commander Paul Langevine
“We have been looking for him since then and we believe that he is involved in these robberies, probably others that happened, since the double day murders here in Berbice. Those bandits fled into the backdam area but it is not easy to go in there and find them because they are familiar with that area while we are not. But we need to do something, go in there, or so because that is where they run and hide,” the source added.
Harmond Roopnarine, 40, a farmer and his wife and two children, aged 17 and 16, were at their Johanna North home about 01:20h on Friday when the man heard someone trying to break into his home.
He stood up, waiting with a cutlass in his hand as they repeatedly hit the window.
He then saw the bandits using a piece of wood to break open the window to enter the house.
As one was making his way in from the broken window, the family began to scream while Roopnarine stood next to the window armed with a cutlass. The bandits ordered him to put down the cutlass but he did not comply. This led to them firing shots at the farmer and demanding, while still outside, that Roopnarine hand over his gold and money.
He said another shot was fired in the direction of his wife and children, who were in the bedroom.
The two bandits, the farmer said, were outside of his home for about ten minutes during which time several calls were made to the Mibicuri Police Station but the family was told that the police are incapable of responding because of the lack of a vehicle.
Meanwhile, at Johanna South, Lennox Ramcharran, 51, a rice farmer, was beaten after gunmen went into his home at about 20:30h on Thursday.
He said his son immediately called the police, informing them that they were under attack by bandits.
All three of the bandits had guns, the man recalled. He said that the bandits ransacked the house after his wife gave them money and jewellery. She and her two children were also beaten.
The men left with $300,000 and an undisclosed amount of jewellery. As a means of escaping without any incidents, the men grabbed the man’s 16-year-old daughter but released her after they realised that they were not being followed.
Ramcharran said shortly after the incident, two police officers arrived on motorbikes.
