East Coast villagers help bandits escape

East Coast villagers help bandits escape
-- Army reports

Guyana Chronicle
February 22, 2003

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THE Guyana Defence Force (GDF) reported yesterday that a group of residents from Friendship, East Coast Demerara, aided the escape of five armed bandits, one of whom was wounded in the arm by an Army patrol, after a robbery attack on a minibus in the village.

According to an Army press release, at about 06:40 hrs, a GDF patrol in the vicinity of Brushe Dam and Ogle Street, Friendship, neighbouring Buxton, responded to the sounds of gunfire coming from the public road.

Upon investigation, they observed five men armed with AK-47 rifles, in the process of robbing the occupants of a minibus at the junction of the East Coast Public Road and Brushe Dam, the Army said.

The bandits fired on the patrol before fleeing south along Friendship Middle Walk in the direction of the railway embankment, while the minibus sped towards the city, the release said.

The Army reported that members of the patrol responded with fire and pursued the bandits, wounding one in the arm.

The men, however, managed to escape after a group of villagers placed themselves in the line of fire between the bandits and the soldiers, the Army said.