Latest update February 4th, 2025 9:06 AM
Bandit killed in botched robbery…Shot accomplice was convicted for robbery under-arms
Twenty-three year-old Mark Griffith, who was shot after attempting to rob a businesswoman
KILLED: Ex-Prison Officer, Trydon Munroe
at Liliendaal Railway Embankment, Greater Georgetown on Tuesday last, had been previously convicted for robbery under-arms in his absence by Magistrate Alex Moore and jailed for two years.
This is according to police spokesperson Jairam Ramlakhan, who further disclosed that the custodial sentence was handed down in June last.
Initially, Griffith of Sheet Anchor, East Canje Berbice, was remanded to prison when he appeared at the New Amsterdam Magistrate’s Court and denied the allegation in October 2016.
He secured bail earlier this year, but after posting the sum he never returned to court for the trial.
As a result, the Magistrate proceeded with the trial in his absence and found that there was sufficient evidence to convict him for the offence at the close of the prosecution’s case.
Based on reports, Griffith while armed with a gun, along with others entered the home of Navindra Singh at Cumberland Village, Canje, Berbice, and robbed him of a laptop valued $100,000, a Samsung Galaxy phone valued $60,000, a gold ring and a tablet and two gold chains valued $230,000. After being apprehended by the police, Griffith had in his possession some of the articles which were later identified by Singh as his belongings.
Griffith is nursing gunshot wounds to his foot and chest and is currently under police guard at the Georgetown Public Hospital where he turned up about an hour after the botched robbery on the businesswoman.
The robbery attempt left 24-year-old ex-prison officer Trydon Munroe, of Angoy’s Avenue, New Amsterdam, Berbice dead. He was shot dead by a security escort for the 42-year-old businesswoman. Police are still seeking the driver of the getaway car.
The security escort was accompanying the woman, a supervisor for Interior Flight Services, after she had uplifted several packages, containing cash and gold from the Eugene F. Correia International Airport and was driving to the city with the bodyguard in the passenger’s seat of her motorcar, when they were confronted by two gunmen.
As they were returning to Georgetown on the Railway Embankment, a dark-coloured motorcar drove past their vehicle and began driving slowly in front of them before it came to a stop, preventing the businesswoman from proceeding forward.
Munroe and Griffith then exited from the backseat of the vehicle and approached the woman’s car, demanding that she hand over the bags containing cash and gold— this was as Munroe “cranked” his weapon as if he was going to shoot.
Kaieteur News understands that the bags containing the valuables were handed over to the two men and as they were making their way back to their waiting motorcar, the security man came out of the car and opened fire on the men.
Reports are that the two bandits dropped the stolen bags and attempted to run towards their vehicle but the driver sped away, leaving them behind.
Munroe attempted to open fire but collapsed onto the roadway where he was confirmed dead. Detectives found a .32 pistol with three live matching rounds next to Munroe’s lifeless body.
A senior prison official confirmed that Munroe was dismissed from the Guyana Prison Service in March for breaching the agency’s regulation after being regularly absent from duty.
He was also being investigated by the prison authority for allegedly smuggling contraband into the prison.
This newspaper learnt that in May 2015, the businesswoman suffered a similar fate when bandits invaded her home and shot her and her son, who had tried to defend them with a cricket bat.
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