Doctor, nurse and prison officer robbed in home invasion

Dec 19, 2017 News

One of the rooms that was ransacked during the robbery

A doctor, nurse and prison officer were blindfolded and robbed at gunpoint around 03:00 hrs yesterday inside their Lot 312 Lamaha Park, Georgetown home by three masked men, who threatened to kill them if they refused to hand over their valuables.

The bandits, two of whom were armed with guns, gained entry into the two-storey property by breaking a door in the bottom-flat of the house and held three women, a teenager and three younger children at gunpoint for one and a half hours.

The victims have been identified as Phenila Rogers, 46, a doctor; Olive Hamer, 50, a prison officer; Donelle Charles, 23, a nurse and 16-year-old Osben Scott, all of Lot 321 Lamaha Park. One of the gunmen punched the teen twice in the face.

The bandits made off with five phones, four tablets, one laptop and $28,000 in cash.

According to information received, at around 21:00 hrs on Sunday, Charles secured the house and she and her family retired to bed. At about 03:00 hrs yesterday, Charles reportedly heard a strange noise coming from the lower flat and got out of her bed to go and investigate. On her way to the lower flat, she reportedly saw the three gunmen making their way upstairs and ran back to her room.

Kaieteur News was informed that once inside her room, the nurse began screaming for help, but this did not scare the bandits away.

Late yesterday, the nurse’s mother, Olive Hamer recalled waking to her daughter’s screams. She said before she could have gotten out of her bedroom, she was confronted by a masked man who pointed a gun at her.

“He bring me and my son outside and he send the other two (bandits) to kick down my sister’s (Rogers’) bedroom’s door, but before they could have kicked the door, she came out, because she heard my daughter screaming,” Hamer said.

The woman added that the gunmen demanded that they get the screaming nurse out of the room before someone gets shot. “One of them took out the magazine and say he will shoot if they don’t get what they want.”

Once the nurse exited the room, the men then used clothes and blindfolded them, after which they began searching the house.

According to the prison officer, the men took her daughter into her room and demanded that she show them where she kept her cash and jewellery. Once they were satisfied with their loot, they left the same way they came.

Kaieteur News was informed that the men were in the yard for quite some time, trying to gain entry. They first used an old gate in the yard to climb to a window in the upper flat, but could not reach. They then broke a door to a vacant apartment in the bottom flat and broke another door that separates the apartment from the victims’ home.

Hamer said that the robbery is a major setback for her family and has left the children traumatized. Investigators visited the scene early yesterday and took fingerprints.