Little Diamond family frustrated at police response to robbery

By Stabroek staff | Friday, December 4, 2009

The Little Diamond family that was terrorized by four armed men early Monday morning in their home is not satisfied with the police response and believes the investigation into the robbery is not being taken seriously since police, according to them, have not acted on a “solid tip”.

The need for the availability of technology and a forensic lab to the police was highlighted in the points raised by the businessman.

Junior and his wife Seema, who operate SF Sales Services at Little Diamond, East Bank Demerara, and their 15-year-old son were attacked and robbed by four armed men early Monday morning. The men, two of whom were armed with handguns, broke into the home, terrorized the family for 30 minutes and stole an undisclosed amount of cash and valuable electronic items which included cellular phones and a laptop.

Seema had told Stabroek News that the incident occurred at about 2.30 am; the intruders escaped half an hour later through a gate in their backyard and disappeared in some bushes. An alarm was raised by the woman and her husband and neighbours immediately contacted ranks at the Providence Police Station.

Junior said on Tuesday, “after we shout out and so and the neighbours called the police at Providence, they say they coming just now and they never showed up ‘til about 9 am that morning.”

The man, still in shock from the recent ordeal, has decided to cut his losses and does not expect justice to be meted out. After the robbery, Junior said, a bag with a rent receipt was discovered at the scene. The receipt contained the name of a man and an address.

“At first I didn’t want to say anything about the bag and receipt to the media,” Junior explained, “because I knew to myself it was valuable information that the police would welcome so I turned it over to them and as far as I am concerned it is not being taken seriously.”

Police, Junior said, have thus far taken a statement from him. However, they have said nothing about the investigation and no arrests have been made.

“Like the police that handling this thing taking it for one big joke,” Junior said, “because they behaving like they don’t want to do their job.”

On Monday morning, the man reported that when police showed up at his ransacked house, about three hours after his neighbours informed them of the robbery, they looked around and said they would return shortly to “dust for fingerprints”.

Police, Junior said, did return on Monday to “dust for fingerprints” and reported that they found “one set”. However, the man said he is baffled by this since police did not take sample prints from his family members to compare with those they would’ve discovered; and he knows the Guyana Police Force is “not technologically advanced so as to have a database with which to input the prints and look for criminal matches”.

“The thing that really bothers me is that I am not sure that their fingerprinting exercise made any sense whatsoever,” Junior stated.

Junior also noted that Monday morning when the police visited the scene for the first time, at about 9am, they did not “close off the scene” or give any advice as to what should be done.

“In my limited experience they should have immediately dusted for fingerprints and do whatever else it is they do at scenes like these,” the businessman said, “Plus they should have secured a part of the scene if not my whole house…these bandits were masked but not gloved and they moved about my house freely touching my furniture and so on.”

The man said he was considering reporting the slow response to relevant police officials but is not sure it will do any good.

“We have to face it,” Junior said, “Our police force is challenged…even if they had showed up right after the incident their best bet would’ve been to chase down these guys because they simply do not have the resources to use the clues left by these guys…and even though I give them a solid tip like that isn’t making any sense either.”

The four bandits, the businessman explained, left boot prints in his house, and drank from his water bottle in the refrigerator possibly leaving DNA evidence behind.  The man said he is a frustrated with the whole situation. “It seems it is too much to expect the police to take some action,” the man stated.

Meanwhile, efforts made since Tuesday to contact Crime Chief Seelal Persaud on this matter have been futile. Stabroek News has also been unable to reach Commissioner Henry Greene for a comment on some of the issues raised by Junior.