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Female villager fights off gun-toting bandit
Sharon Walcott’s clothes were covered with mud after her fierce fight with the bandit.
An armed bandit got more than he bargained for when the woman he attacked, Sharon Walcott, engaged him in a fierce fight that almost cost him his life.
The bandit who was armed with what police believe was a toy gun managed to free himself from the woman’s steely grip even as they tumbled in a nearby gutter, and fled before angry villagers could get to him.
The incident occurred in the East Coast Demerara village of Nabaclis at around 20:40 hours on Wednesday.
To compound matters there was no police response when the matter was reported to the ‘C’ Division Headquarters, Cove and John.
Speaking to this newspaper with the mud on her clothes – evidence of the fierce struggle -Walcott said that she was on the main road waiting for her husband but decided to go home after a while.
She said that as she was walking through an unlit street, she heard a bicycle approaching her from behind and since the street was narrow she stepped aside to allow the rider to pass. But instead of passing, the rider jumped off the bicycle and attacked Walcott, grabbing her from behind.
“He throw down the bicycle, grabbed me behind me neck, and say, ‘Whey de bag deh?’ I say I don’t have no bag and he start fight with me, ‘wha you get, wha you get?’ and me and he topple in de drain,” Walcott recalled.
She said that she eventually observed that the man was carrying a gun and she immediately held onto it.
“He keep telling me, ‘Shut yuh mouth’. I tell he I ain’t get nothing,” she explained.
According to Walcott, she was carrying a soursop in her hands when the bandit struck and he must have felt that it was a bag. However, during the scuffle, the bandit noticed her jewellery and grabbed an earring from her ear.
The vehicles parked in the Cove and John compound. There were no patrol ranks on duty.
He then tried to relieve her of her gold rings but was only able to grab one of them since her wedding band was secured tightly around her finger.
“He get the ring and he pull out me one side earring. I start to holler for thief and a neighbour called out to me and I tell her I just get rob,” Walcott said.
She told this newspaper that by this time they both had emerged from the drain, and the bandit managed to free himself and bolted from the area with his bicycle.
“He come expecting me fuh give up me things easy, but was me, he and de gun in de drain,” Walcott said.
Another resident said that he saw the man riding past but did not know what had taken place.
“He ride past we and then he turn back like he confuse, then he ride away. It wasn’t till they (victim’s relatives) come and tell me that I know was a robbery,” the resident said.
Several other villagers formed a search party and combed the village for the bandit but he had already disappeared.
The police at the nearby Cove and John Police Station claimed that no ranks were available for the patrol unit.
This newspaper was at the scene and a senior reporter took the victim to the station. There, one rank was manning the enquiries desk and only a detective was on duty.
The patrol vehicles were parked in the compound and there was no other rank in sight despite assurances by the division’s administration that there would be adequate police presence throughout the Christmas period.
Villagers of Nabaclis had prided themselves as the only group of residents along the East Coast of Demerara who were not victims of armed robbery during the crime wave.
However, that was when they had a vibrant Community Policing Group which is now inactive due to the lack of cooperation from the police, they say.
Within the past two weeks there have been reports of several armed robberies in the community. Police believe that the perpetrator of Wednesday night’s robbery is the same person who attacked a female Prison officer in the village as she was making her way home.
They have detained a suspect, but according to reports, Wednesday night’s victim could not positively identify him.
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