A marauding band of 13 heavily armed criminals created mayhem in the sleepy rural township of Rose Hall some 14 miles from New Amsterdam along Guyana’s easternmost coastline just after midnight on Monday, July 22.
Guyana’s President Bharrat Jagdeo and his entourage had exited the town a mere 15 minutes before the band struck. The president and his team had just left an after-congress party at the J.C. Chandisingh Secondary School, Port Mourant on the border with the nearby township.
For almost two hours the bandits, some dressed in dark clothing similar to the outfit of the Police Target Special Squad, military boots, bulletproof vests and armed to the teeth, laid siege to the township of approximately 20,000. It is a morning that the people of Rose Hall will never forget. Today some 45 days after, the barbaric attack is still being talked about.
During the attack two policemen and a young Essequibian scholarship awardee were murdered by the gang; two businessmen were robbed and their families terrorised; patrons at a Chinese restaurant were robbed; four security guards were beaten and two relieved of their handguns, while several persons were injured.
A victim of that attack miraculously survived to tell his story after a close encounter with the gang which he said included the five notorious February 23 Camp Street jail escapees - Andrew Douglas (since deceased), Dale Moore, Shawn Browne, Troy Dick and Mark Fraser.
The victim was shot on his right wrist, upper arm, right breast and forehead by one of the bandits. He recalled that approximately 15 minutes after the president and his entourage had passed through the town he saw two men dressed in black clothing walking in the middle of the road while another dressed in police uniform was coming from the direction of the police outpost.
“At first I thought it was policemen but within minutes I learnt that they were bandits who had captured a policeman from the outpost when they approached me.
One of the two I recognized as [Troy] Dick stuck me up with a pump-action shotgun and asked me where was my gun. I told him that I did not have a gun and he began hitting me.”
According to the victim, a scuffle ensued between him and Dick and just about when he was getting the upper hand in the fight, Dick’s colleague who was engaged in another scuffle with a friend of his, pointed an AK-47 to his head and told him to “back off. I was then told that I would be killed later because I had attacked Dick.”
The man recalled being beaten on his back by the bandits, and his friend who ran away from his captors being shot by two others whom he recognized.
He and the policeman were then marched to the National Bank of Industry and Commerce (NBIC) where the two guards there were beaten and relieved of a revolver. Another guard at the nearby Guyana National Co-operative Bank (GNCB) was also beaten and his weapon taken away by the bandits. They were all forced to lie face down on the pavement under guard.
“From this point the gang controlled the entrance and exits to the town maintaining ‘guards’ to the east and west, north and south. From there they launched their attack on a nearby businessman’s home with a chainsaw”.
The victim recalled seeing two bandits with M70 rifles, three with AK-47 rifles, several pump-action shotguns and a number of 9mm pistols. One of the bandits told the policeman that they had information that he lived in Rose Hall when he had told them earlier he lived at Black Bush Polder. The policeman in fact lived at Rose Hall.
Later, police who were approaching the scene from the Whim and Albion Police Stations in response to a robbery report, were shot with tracer bullets and were forced to retreat and take cover. He recalled “the firepower of the police were definitely no match for the firepower of the bandits.”
The three guards, the policeman and the victim were marched by the bandits to the Reef Section of the town which leads to the Atlantic Ocean after their reign of terror. On arrival at a pump station some 500 yards from the main road, a boat which had entered an inlet was waiting for the men.
“The policeman, Ramphal Pardat, was told that he had refused to co-operate with the gang and would have to die. [A man] then took a pistol from his waist and shot Pardat in his throat and face. He died on the spot. I was then reminded of an earlier promise made by Dick [and I was then shot] four times. [The man] then told his fellow counterparts that he had killed me. They all jumped in the boat and left.”
The victim miraculously survived the shooting and was eventually taken to the hospital bleeding profusely from his wounds. The man has since left the country and has vowed never to return.