Bandit shot, injured in Liliendaal home
Stabroek News
September 3, 2002
One of two bandits who broke into the home of a retired engineer at Third Street, Liliendaal, early yesterday, left the house in company of the police after sustaining gunshot wounds at the hands of the homeowner. His partner in crime managed to escape.
The man of Da Silva Street, Newtown, Kitty, Georgetown, was admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation yesterday with several gunshot wounds.
Malcolm James, a licensed firearm holder, who remigrated in February, told this newspaper that at about 4:30 a.m. he heard a noise and went downstairs to investigate. There, he came face to face with two burglars.
“They turned and saw me... two of them. They looked in my direction [and started] coming towards me. I shot the first one and they ran outside and I fired some other shots. One dropped down here,” he said while pointing to the bloodstained concrete to the eastern side of the yard. There were bloodstains inside the house, on the ground floor.
The man summoned the police. The burglar reportedly told the cops that “somebody forced me” to break into James’s home, which is still under construction, and steal the water-pump and other articles.
When the police checked, a number of James’ household articles were already stashed in a green car, which was parked on the road, in front of the home.
“This is my second hit... In March, they broke into my container, which was right in front here and stole the majority of my things,” the man said.
From all indications, the thieves seemed to have tried prising open one of the ground floor windows, but later abandoned that task and scaled the veranda at the rear of the building.
Meanwhile, Chung, whom the police in a release described as a known character, was placed under police guard.
Since the February 23 jailbreak of five men, there has been an upsurge in criminal activities.
A number of civilians and law enforcement officers have been murdered, robbed and sexually assaulted.
The police, in a release yesterday said that at about 10:00 a.m., a mobile patrol was on the Annandale Public Road, when the ranks observed a group of about 20 persons assembled on the market road, closer to the public road.
The men, on seeing the cops, ran away along the market road, with the police in hot pursuit.
According to the statement, several shots were fired, prompting the police to return fire. “When the exchange of gunfire ended, one member of the group was found in a yard nursing gunshot wounds.” The man is now in stable condition in a hospital, under guard. Investigations are in progress.
Just last week, a band of about 12 men terrorised several residents of Non Pariel Housing Scheme on the East Coast Demerara. One man, who was preparing to bury his wife later that day, was doused with kerosene and set ablaze during that attack.
In similar manner on Friday afternoon, about 40 youths, armed with guns, went on a rampage in the East Coast Demerara villages of Annandale and Strathspey, robbing and beating residents.
The incidents took place simultaneously with the funeral of notorious fugitive, Andrew Douglas, who was found shot to death in a stolen car the previous week.