Gunmen beat, rob magistrate

Nov 19, 2009 News

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By Dale Andrews

Magistrate Geeta Chandan-Edmond was literally left battered and bruised when four masked gunmen held her up on a lonely stretch of road in Mahaicony and relieved her of cash jewellery and other valuables in what was described as a well-planned attack.
But the Magistrate is convinced that the attack was not merely just a robbery.
She has since expressed fear for her life and those of her family.
The attack occurred about 15:30 hours yesterday while the Magistrate was heading home from work in the city with her baby daughter and her babysitter, Surita.
The magistrate resides at Number Six Village, West Coast Berbice.
According to reports, the men who were in a dark-coloured Toyota 212 motorcar were coming in the opposite direction when they spotted the Magistrate’s vehicle.
They turned back and trailed the Magistrate’s vehicle from Novar, Mahaicony, and then launched their attack when the road was devoid of vehicular traffic.
“This vehicle had two number plates. One read HB 3317 in front and a PKK number plate at the back…I started to get suspicious and tried calling my husband to let him know what was happening,” Magistrate Chandan-Edmond told this newspaper at the Fort Wellington Hospital shortly after receiving treatment for a swollen forehead and a split lower lip.
Her calls to her husband were initially unsuccessful. By that time the vehicle that was following her overtook her vehicle.
The Magistrate became more concerned and attempted on several occasions to overtake the car but was prevented from doing so as the car kept blocking her path.
As they approached the Letter T area, the car made a sudden stop forcing her to stop also.
“I tried to reverse but by that time four men jumped out (from the car). They were all in masks and they were pointing their guns,” the Magistrate related.
The men motioned to her to wind down her vehicle windows which she did.
“They said, ‘We’ve been looking for you a long time’. They said, ‘Pass up all the jewellery, pass up all the money you have’. They took my wedding band, my engagement ring, my watch. I had on two bangles and a chain,” she recalled.
The Magistrate was also relieved of $15,000 in cash while her babysitter had her few pieces of jewellery taken away.
“They start asking, ‘Where is the f*@#ing camera?’ They were using real filthy language and I said ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about’ and they started to ransack the vehicle and they found the camera. They took it, my cell phone and my laptop,” Magistrate Chandan-Edmond said.
Although she said that she had a lot of footage on the camera, she declined to disclose what they were about.
“I wouldn’t want to comment on that at this point. But, yes, they were after the camera. I think to take the money and the jewellery was just a sham because they were just hounding me for the camera all the time,” the Magistrate stated.
During the attack, one of the men dealt the magistrate several cuffs to her face and even struck her on her head with a gun.
She however managed to snatch off the mask from the face of one of the gunmen while her babysitter grabbed the sunglasses of another.
Both items were later handed over to the police.
Magistrate Chandan-Edmond, who is at present in a court battle with the Judicial Service Commission following a spat with Acting Chancellor Carl Singh, travels from Number Six Village to the city every work day after being transferred from Berbice.
Her husband Joel Persid-Edmond, who is also an attorney at law, eventually got word of the attack and left for the scene.
He eventually met up with her near the Abary Bridge. By then the bandits had disappeared.
“She was calling me since she became suspicious but I did not get the calls,” the Magistrate’s husband said.
The Magistrate and her husband are not too happy with the initial police response.
They claimed that they first went to the Weldaad Police Station to report the matter but were sent back to Mahaicony, where the report was eventually taken.
“I am a lawyer and this leaves me to wonder what happens at the police stations when we are sent back and forth. What is really happening to the civilians?” Joel Persid-Edmond lamented.
Magistrate Chandan-Edmond is the second Magistrate to suffer from a bandit attack.
Earlier this year, Magistrate Nigel Hawke and his wife were attacked by a gunman in their Non Pareil East Coast Demerara home.
That attack prompted the police to mount special security details for some Magistrates at their homes.
Magistrate Chandan-Edmond said that she would definitely be seeking the protection of the police in the form of an escort following yesterday’s incident.
“I could have lost my life today,” she said.
Even her babysitter is contemplating quitting the job as a result of the ordeal.
The magistrate and her husband are to make a decision on who should make the adjustments to their respective careers in order to facilitate each other.
While Magistrate Chandan-Edmond did not point fingers at anyone for yesterday’s attack, she said that she has her own opinion of who might have been responsible.
Senior police detectives on the East Coast of Demerara are all involved in investigating the matter.

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