House thief shot dead, found with guns

Oct 19, 2013 News

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– accomplice captured, booty retrieved

An unidentified burglar was shot dead by the police minutes after he fled from the home he and an accomplice raided at Good Faith, Mahaicony yesterday afternoon.
His accomplice who led police and other residents on a chase into the Dundee backlands before heading back and joining a minibus was reportedly captured an hour later.
The men had ransacked the home of minibus driver Veerapen Jebode, 58, and his wife Gangawattie around 13:30 and escaped with an undisclosed sum of cash and other valuables.
But their escape was short-lived, thanks to the bravery of the minibus driver’s wife and a neighbor. That was boosted by the quick response from the police.
A press release from the Police Public Relations Office said that after the couple found that their home was ransacked, they contacted the police.
The police said that ranks from Mahaicony Police Station responded to the report and during the investigations they came under fire from two men who were in the area.
“The police returned fire and one of the men was fatally shot, while the other escaped into the backlands. A .32 snub-nose revolver and a 9mm. pistol were recovered at the scene by the police. A bag containing a pair of binoculars, a cell phone and a cap were also found.”
The release said that further investigations led to the arrest of a male suspect, while he was attempting to board another minibus.
Mrs. Jebode explained to the media that she was lying in her hammock outside the bottom flat of her house when her husband arrived home in his minibus.
She had no idea that bandits had already raided her house. It was not until she got up and went inside to take out her husband’s meal that she realized that someone had been there.
“When I go in the kitchen, me see all de kitchen cupboard, everything ransack. So me say must be petty thief.”
She alerted her husband and upon checking further, they discovered that their entire house had been ransacked.
Sensing that whoever the perpetrators were had to be close by, the woman went to the back of the yard and ask her neighbour if they had seen anyone suspicious leaving her house at the back.
They did not.
A few minutes later another neighbour saw two strange men coming through a nearby dam with haversacks on their backs.
“When he question de boy dem, ‘wha wuk alyuh do?’ dem say dem nah know dis place. So he come over quick and tell me da dem boy dis look suspicious,” Mrs. Jebode explained.
Since she had already called the police, she begged her neighbor to keep a close eye on the two characters to see where they were heading.
Eventually she ventured onto the road and saw when the two men flagged down a route 50 bus that was heading towards the city. When the men jumped in, Mrs. Jebode, not wanting to lose men, bravely boarded the bus with them. Her neighbour did likewise.
They said nothing to the men throughout the brief journey.
“We did not tell them a word. I just tell the bus I going to Mahaica. The bus driver didn’t even know that the two men were bandits,” the woman said.
Less than a mile into the journey, they saw the police patrol vehicle approaching from the opposite direction.
“After we see de police, de neighbour start holler fuh de police car to stop. When dis bus wha we deh in with de bandits stop, dem go fuh jump out, but me neighbor block he. So de one with de bag run way and police come and shot de other one at de entrance of the minibus door,” Mrs. Jebode explained.
Contrary to what the police reported, Mrs Jebode could not recall the men opening fire on the police.
She however suspected that the men could have been carrying their guns in their bags.
“They did not get a chance to go in they bag,” she said.
The woman said that although she knew the danger she was in she did not think twice about following the two thieves into the bus.
“I had somebody (neighbor) fuh back me up and I know de police was coming,” Mrs. Jebode said.
She said that God was with her “because if I was in de house when they went in, I would’a fight with dem and they might’a kill me.”
This newspaper later observed the police combing the backlands for the escaped suspect. They abandoned the search when it began to get dark.
They later learnt that a suspicious man had boarded a bus for the city.
“We got word that this man with sand all over his skin had boarded a minibus and we intercepted the bus and took him out,” a police source said.
The police are checking out his story about what he was doing in the area.
Yesterday’s shooting was the second police fatal shooting in less than a week.
Last Saturday night three bandits were killed in a confrontation with the police.

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