Number 19 Village under attack from bandits

May 03, 2012 News

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 …..residents want measures put in place to deal with high crime rate
Residents of Number 19 Village, Corentyne, say that their village has been under attack from

armed bandits and thieves these past months. They say that they do not feel safe in the village and cannot endure any more of the attacks.
Number 19 Village runs along the longest and continuous straight road in the Caribbean and forms part of the Corentyne Highway.
The attackers are becoming more brazen. They carry out their attacks both in the day and night and also when persons are attending events in the village. For the year alone, according to residents, Number 19 Village has suffered 11 attacks from bandits and thieves, many of which go unrecorded by the media.
The most recent attack was around 19:30 hours on Tuesday when four armed masked bandits pounced on a grocer in the area.
According to the grocer, Shivlall Sirkissoon, he and a few others were relaxing under their bottom- house when four masked men “stormed in”. He said they were armed with cutlasses, knives and a sophisticated ‘pump action’ gun. They “fired five shots”, which hit other residents in the process. According to residents, it was high drama.
An elderly woman who was standing on her verandah, just opposite Sirkissoon’s home was hit on the neck. She is now a patient at the New Amsterdam Hospital. Also, a 19- year- old male, Mahendra Baker, was also hit by three bullets during the wild shooting and he was also admitted to the New Amsterdam Hospital.
He said the men fired shots wildly in the air so as to scare persons off. There was a packed ‘wake- house’ just across the road from the Sirkissoons but that, apparently, did not scare off the bandits, who in their usual way, carried out their attacks, terrorising and carting off valuables from the Sirkissoons.
His sister-in-law, Keisha and uncle, Sooklall, called ‘Papso’ were also terrorised in the process by the men. Sooklall received several chops about his head with a cutlass.
Sirkissoon too received his share of blows. “They put some lashes on me head and me back and so”, he related. The episode lasted twenty minutes since the bandits took Keisha in the house upstairs and had the hostage search for the gold and other valuables.

He added that the men carted off about $300,000 worth in jewellery. “We ain’t had no cash to give them at the time,” he said.
The man noted, too, that one of the bandits specifically asked for his child’s toy computer which was bought, recently.
The men then made their escape through the ‘White Bridge Dam’, just a few blocks away, which is popularly referred to as “the escape place”, where all the bandits in the area make their escape.
Several residents, who gathered by the Sirkissoons, were furious at the vulnerability that exists in their village, which they say is encouraging thieves and bandits to make robberies and made good their escape.
The residents said that the police, on Monday evening, arrived some 25 minutes later, having travelled from New Amsterdam (six miles away) to the crime scene. There is the Lewis Manor Impact Base just a few blocks from where the robbery occurred but the base has one or two unarmed officers stationed there along with Rural Constables.
The area, including the entire stretch of Number 19 Roadway does not have street- lights. The stretch of roadway is very dark at nights, which has also been causing numerous accidents along the road.
Regional authorities had said that the placement of street lights along the roadway was being discussed at higher levels but to date, none has been placed. Number 19 Village does not have line telephones. Residents depend on the use of cell phones, while a few residents have antenna phones, which they say have become antiquated. Some do not even work properly.
The area has two Community Policing Group (CPG) Officers, but the officers, in speaking with Kaieteur News, said the bandits are more equipped than they are, since they (the officers) only have a pair of handcuffs and batons to do their jobs. They want firearms.
“Everything that happens, we are on the spot, but what is the use? We cannot do anything because we need firearm because each and every robbery that happens, we are on the spot. But what is the use? Just a piece of baton and handcuff we get– that cannot do anything, when you have men with guns what will we do?” said one CPG member, Victor Totaram.

He added that during Monday’s robbery, he called for help at Central Police Station twice and “they responded to me and said they will come but until half an hour after me see them”. “I think there should be police at the outpost here because something will happen here steady and you will have to wait on police to come from Central [Police Station] and by the time they come, all things finish”.
Another member, Leon Baker, said, “We from the CPG have an active group here, but if you get guns, you can perform, attack the bandits–but members have to keep their distance because if they get shot, this (being a CPG Member) is a voluntary stuff and we got wives and children—
“If anything happen to you, nobody will give you anything”, he said.
Representation was made for them to access firearms but he said training has to be done first. The training, he noted, is supposed to start soon. “They taking too long to give the training”.
“The police know fully well that 19 Village is being targeted, so this village should always be equipped in case anything happen, not when something happens, you will go and say you will do this and that”, he noted.
Baker noted that the response time by the police on Monday evening “was too long” since the police came from the Central Police Station in New Amsterdam.
“We need protection! We need street lights and telephones! And that dam where they [the bandits] running away, they should really put lights there”, said one resident. “The policing group that is here should get firearms”.
A few months ago, residents in the village arranged a meeting with Senior Police officials in ‘B’ Division, including Assistant Commander, Eric Bassant, but residents said only promises were made. Residents had also asked the authorities to re- activate the Lewis Manor Impact Base and station armed officers there to deter thieves, bandits and criminals from pouncing on the village, but to date, nothing has happened.
The residents agree that some of the bandits and thieves are village- grown since they “come and ask for what they want– for certain correct things in the house”.
Several attempts to reach Mr Bassant and ‘B’ Division Commander, Mr Derryck Josiah proved unsuccessful.
Meanwhile, on Monday evening, bandits broke into the home of a Cumberland hire car operator, Mello Ramkissoon, of 43 Archer Street, while he and his family were visiting relatives on West Coast Demerara. According to Ramkissoon, they left home on Monday around 7:15 pm and returned Tuesday afternoon only to find the back- door downstairs was broken into.
“Apparently, they used cutters to cut the padlocks and wrenched the door”. He said, “They ransacked the whole downstairs and they went in the two bedrooms and ransacked the whole room…searching each and everything fine fine”.
The bandits left with $25,000 in local currency and US$50 which was hidden under a mat under the bed. They also stole a music set valued at $50,000; a DVD Player and a 1000- watt transformer.
Neighbours, he said, heard nothing. The police were informed and a suspect was picked up on Tuesday evening.

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