Bandit dead after attempted robbery on business owner
One bandit is dead and another is nursing bullet wounds to the neck and right arm, after an attempted robbery on a licensed firearm holder yesterday afternoon along the Grove, East Bank Demerara (EBD) Public Road.
The Grove, EBD crime scene
It was later confirmed that the deceased bandit was 18-year-old Michael Grant, of Agricola, East Bank Demerara. He had been pronounced dead on arrival to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre. Up to press time the other injured bandit remained identified. The businessman, Neezam Khan, and a colleague were reportedly outside the snackette of which Khan is proprietor, when four young men on two motorcycles rode up. One of the men, armed with a handgun, held up the businessman, relieved him of his jewellery and shot him in his left arm. However, this newspaper understands that before the bandits could have escaped with the loot, Khan opened fired on them. After several rounds were discharged, one of the bandits tried to escape the scene on foot, while another abandoned his bike and escaped with the other two accomplices on their motorcycle. “There were shots on both ends. After the front man got shot the other bandit dropped the bike and run off,” said one eyewitness who agreed to talk under conditions of anonymity. According to the eyewitness, he was in his car about to get lunch, when he saw two men with a gun corner Khan and his colleague between two parked cars. The witness, a former forest officer, said that after he saw the pointed gun, he stayed in his car to avoid the showdown. However, after shots were fired, bullets managed to ricochet off the side of his and surrounding cars. He related that the men were not wearing masks and that during their escape both sustained injuries. Meanwhile, Khan’s father, 63 year old ‘Rasta Man’, said that his son was on his way to the hospital for treatment when Kaieteur News arrived on the scene. He said that his son only sustained injuries to his arm and was able to walk just fine, but that the two bandits were bleeding profusely when they escaped the scene. “The men come on two motorbikes, one parked li’l past the place, and the other one come and rob me son. He hit one of them through the neck and the other one in chest,” said the 63 year-old. He added that both men were in police custody, but that the bandit who was shot in the chest had died. Khan’s father also said that after the men fled, his family and the police held the perpetrators’ motorcycle at the business’s premises. Investigations are ongoing.