Friendship villagers help AK-47 gunmen to flee from soldiers
Stabroek News
February 22, 2003
A group of villagers aided the escape of five gunmen who had earlier robbed a minibus passing through Friendship, East Coast Demerara and fired on an army patrol responding to the attack.
The Guyana Defence Force (GDF), in a release yesterday, said that one of its patrols, which was in the vicinity of Brushe Dam and Ogle Street, Friendship, heard sounds of gunfire coming from the public road at about 6:40 am and responded. Upon investigating, the patrol observed five men, armed with AK-47 rifles, robbing the occupants of a route 63 (New Amsterdam/Crabwood Creek) minibus at the junction of the East Coast Public Road and Brushe Dam. The gunmen fired on the patrol before fleeing south along Friendship Middle Walk, in the direction of the railway embankment. The minibus sped away west towards Georgetown.
“Members of the patrol responded with (gun) fire, pursued the bandits and shot one of them in the arm. The bandits managed to escape with the assistance of a group of villagers who placed themselves in the line of fire, between the bandits and soldiers,” the release stated.
