Sophia schoolboy among two shot in botched Mahaica burglary

Feb 09, 2011 News

He was supposed to be at home preparing for school the following day but instead, 17-year-old Junior Corbin of Sophia, and two associates went up to Good Hope, Mahaica, on the East Coast of Demerara, allegedly with the intention of robbing a Guyoil Fuel Outlet early yesterday morning.
Their plans however went awry, and Corbin along with 33-year-old ex-policeman Shawn St. Clair, also of Sophia, who was the intended getaway driver, ended up being shot by the proprietors of the facility.
Fortunately for them, their injuries are not life-threatening, but they will surely face the full force of the law.
Both men were shot to their feet, in separate circumstances, although they were both part of a three-man group that tried to rob the fuel station, which is owned by Rovin Ramsarup, the son of GDF Colonel (ret’d) Chabilall Ramsarup.
St. Clair was wounded by a 9mm calibre weapon and was admitted to hospital, while Corbin who suffered pellet wounds from the blast of a shotgun, was treated and handed back into the custody of the police.
The other accomplice managed to escape.
While the men are maintaining that they were not involved in any robbery attempt, both the proprietors and police are convinced that they were.
Speaking with Kaieteur News yesterday, Commander of the Police East Coast Demerara Division, Assistant Commissioner Gavin Primo, explained that a brother of the proprietor of the fuel station, who lives nearby had observed two suspicious men enter the facility which was closed at the time.
“Using the telephone he summoned his brother, the owner, and his father, who both live at Good Hope Mahaica,” Assistant Commissioner Primo told Kaieteur News.
Both men turned up at the scene shortly after.
According to the Commander, the owner entered the premises and upon being seen, the two bandits made a dash to getaway. While his accomplice scaled a fence at the back of the facility, Corbin tried to hide in an unfinished concrete room.
Rovin Ramsarup stated that since the property had been vandalized twice within the past six weeks, they had been very wary of other attacks.
He said that when he and his brother Arun, who is a licenced firearm holder, entered the premises, they heard a commotion and saw a man running towards the back.

Junior Corbin

But he soon learnt that another man was still in the premises and they confronted him.
It turned out to be 17-year-old Junior Corbin, who was crouched against a concrete wall.
“He had something in his hands and I told him, ‘Don’t move, don’t move or else you gonna be shot.’ He launched to my brother who had the shotgun and he was shot in the foot,” Rovin Ramsarup explained during an interview with this newspaper.
He said that the men had entered a section of the facility where there was some electronic equipment, and they had already removed two DVD players, which were subsequently recovered in the yard.
Some concerned neighbours upon hearing the gunshot, subsequently arrived on the scene and it was disclosed that a strange car was parked a short distance away from the gas station.
According to Commander Primo, Retired Army Colonel Ramsarup, who was also at the scene, went to the location where the car, a white Toyota AT 212, was parked with a man inside.
“Chabilall Ramsarup approached the vehicle and opened the door and it is alleged that the driver pounced on him, Ramsarup, who discharged a round, hitting him too in the foot below the knee,” Primo told Kaieteur News.
However, the man’s mother Carlene Livan said that her son, a taxi driver, told her that he had dropped of some passengers at Mahaica and was returning to the city when he felt sleepy.
She said that her son informed that he decided to park his car and take a nap when he was confronted by a group of men.
“One of them haul he out of the car and tell he hug up some post and by the time he hug up the post, one of them shot him and then threw him in a car trunk and took him to the station,” Carlene Livan said.
But the police are not buying that version of what transpired since they claimed that St. Clair, who is a former cop, could have used the safety of the Mahaica Police Station compound to take his nap, instead of the unlit street where his car was found parked.
Corbin, who claimed that he attends a school in Sophia, in his defence said that he was standing on the road when he was confronted by some men, one of whom was armed.

The suspected getaway car in which the other wounded man was waiting.

“Dey come up and seh, ‘whey de other one deh?’ I put up me hand and tell dem me ain’t know bout no other man,” the teenager told this newspaper, while being guarded by a policeman at the Georgetown Hospital.
He said that one of the men who confronted him encouraged another who was carrying a gun to “shoot he before he run away”.
He claims that the man carrying the weapon then shot him in the left foot.
When asked what he was doing in the Mahaica area at that time of the night, he said that he had visited an aunt who resides in the East Coast Demerara village.
But his mother Debra Corbin said that her son had no aunt living in the Mahaica area.
Junior Corbin also claimed that he had left his home around 18:00 hours on Monday, but his mother disputed this explaining that she had seen her son at home sometime before midnight on Monday.
“A police call me this morning and ask me if Junior Corbin is me son and I said yes. De police say that he get shoot in Mahaica,” Debra Corbin said, adding that she was surprised that her son was that far away from home.
However she indicated that she was not too surprised by the fate that met her son.
“You see me son, I does talk to he about these friends wha does deh calling he out. Anytime you see he deh in me house, dese bigger boys does deh callin he out and I don’t like it, I does tell dem Junior is a lil boy, dey mustn’t call he,” she added.

The Mahaica gas station which was reportedly targeted by the burglars.

She admitted that she had cause on one occasion to engage the Welfare Department of the Ministry of Human Services over her son’s conduct.
Many persons at the hospital, upon hearing Corbin’s age, lamented the fact that instead of him being in school, he was out attempting to commit robberies far away from his home.