By Royan Abrams
The sound of gunshots sent fear among residents of Edinburg East Bank Berbice as gunmen stormed the home of a businessman and his family earlier today.
It was about 1:00 am this morning while 45-year- old Nankumar Datt and his family were in bed that they heard walking on a shed of their two storey home. Seconds after, two men one armed with a shotgun and another with a cutlass broke a window and entered the home, where they attacked the family and demanded cash and jewellery.
Speaking with reporters this morning, one of the victims, 21-year- old Kelly Datt disclosed that she heard men running on the shed and then her father shouted to other family members to run. “But I did not run because they already hit the glass window and already jump through and start hitting my sister and she start hollering and my dad was outside and when the bandit open the door two came out and I bumped into them and try to stop them so that my father could run out the house to go get help” she recounted.
The young woman related that her father managed to make his way downstairs but two other bandits had already entered the house and attacked him. She said moments later she heard gunshots and went in search of her father, but he managed to make his way out of the house onto the public road. “The bandit took phone cards from the shop and was asking where the money deh while beating me and my sister, then my mother said to don’t hit them that she will give them the money, then one of them ask for the gold band she had on or else he will chop off her hands” she recalled.
According to the young lady, the bandits asked them to stay upstairs while they entered the lower flat of the house where another gunshot was heard followed by a scream. At this point, Kelly Datt got scared as she was fearful that her father was shot. “When I heard the scream I hearing people talking and saying that come let we go before the police come and then everybody gone,” she told News Room.
When the ordeal was over and the victims ventured out of their home, they found one of the gunmen with a gunshot on their bridge and called the police, who arrived promptly on the scene.
The injured bandit was pronounced dead on arrival at the New Amsterdam Hospital. He was later identified as Odan Lallbeharry, aka ‘Stew’, 45 years of New Forest, East Canje, Berbice.
According to Commander of ‘B’ Division Ian Amsterdam, the police have so far arrested two other persons in connection with the robbery. He confirmed that the deceased bandit was shot by one of his accomplices.
