Friendship squatting community under siege

Aug 15, 2009 News

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– Gunmen smash windows to enter house; rob, beat and threaten residents

Residents of a Friendship, East Bank Demerara squatting community are living in daily fear of a gang of heavily-armed gunmen, who have attacked, robbed and threatened them while making the area their haven.
Some residents said that they have been suffering in silence out of fear of reprisals.
Others, though, are determined to put an end to the torment are now speaking out. This resulted in several police ranks descending on the community and Bagotstown, East Bank Demerara yesterday in a bid to arrest the suspects.
They detained one alleged gang member and recovered a shotgun, but the others vanished before the ranks could arrive.
Residents allege that the gunmen have at least one M70 assault rifle and other small arms among their arsenal.
“They got guns that I don’t even think the police got,” Kay Alves, one of the outspoken residents, told Kaieteur News. One resident, who asked not to be identified, said that he has had a long-running feud with one of the gang members.
The dispute escalated recently when the alleged gang-member accused the resident and another man of assaulting his girlfriend.
Around 06:00 hrs on Wednesday, the alleged gang member unman and his associates reportedly paid the resident a visit.
The man told Kaieteur News that he first became aware that something was wrong when he heard someone trying to kick in his front door. He said that the attackers then proceeded to smash all the windows on the bottom flat, but were unable to enter the heavily-grilled flat.
“They say ‘we gun kill you…you gun end up just like the one (slain Brendon Charles) in Grove…we gun kill everybody…you gun find nuff of y’all dead.’”
Kaieteur News observed that practically all the windows in the man’s bottom flat were shattered.
He alleged that the gunmen were furious because some residents were providing the police with information on their activities.
The man claimed that while the men were trying to gain entry, he attempted to contact ranks at the Grove Police Station, but the phone was out of order. He allegedly then contacted the IMPACT Base at the Brickdam Police Station, and a policewoman assured him that the ranks would respond.
However, he said the police did not arrive until around 14:00 hrs that day.
Yesterday, police ranks visited the area and took the alleged gunman’s girlfriend and another woman into custody.
But relatives of one of the detained women alleged that the resident whose home was attacked and another man had beaten the woman with a cutlass and doused her with a liquid.
They also complained that that the police ranks entered their home early yesterday morning without producing a search warrant and manhandled the relative, while taking her into custody.
The relatives also claimed that the man was in collusion with some of the criminals in the community.
Kay Alves, a businesswoman who has lived in Friendship for 17 years, said that she was in the interior between June 13 and June 16, when she received word that burglars had broken into her home. She eventually arrived home to find that thieves had carted off all the stock that she was to have taken to her interior shop.
Her clothing, mattresses and other items were also gone. Ms. Alves estimated her losses at over $1M.
She claimed that she eventually learned that the gunmen in the community were the culprits and passed this information to the police.
Ms. Alves revealed that the gunmen recently vented their anger on a resident who occasionally assisted her by attacking the man while he slept. The resident managed to escape but not before being chopped on the hand.
Ms. Alves is furious at other residents who refuse to speak out about the gang, and who turned a blind eye when her home was being raided.
But she insists that she will not allow the gunmen to drive her out of the community. “I am not going nowhere. Is 17 years I living in this place.”
A Rastafarian farmer said he also had a harrowing encounter with the gunmen.
He alleged that he was walking in the community on Wednesday night when three of the men, including one known as ‘Mad Dog’, cornered him.
“One of the men pressed a gun to my ear and ask me is who looking for them, and start broadside me. Then ‘Mad Dog’ say ‘leh we kill this man.’”
The farmer said that he managed to flee into the bushes, but he fears he may not be so fortunate next time around. “If the police don’t get them I don’t know what will become of me.”
The fear was evident when Kaieteur visited the community. One family whose home the gunmen had shot at refused to relate their ordeal.
Others claimed that there was no trouble in the community and said that the alleged victims were fabricating the stories.

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