12-year-old burglar jumps into pond to escape police bullets

Vibert Henry points to the pond at the back of his yard where the young burglar tried to hide.

A 12-year-old boy jumped into a pond to escape being shot by the police during a botched robbery attempt at Bachelor’s Adventure, East Coast Demerara.
The youth and his accomplice were in the process of carting off a bicycle and other items from a resident when they were confronted by ranks of a police patrol unit.
The youth was arrested and subsequently placed into police custody by a Magistrate in the district, while his accomplice managed to escape.
The incident occurred shortly after the police went to the area to arrest a 72-year-old man who allegedly wounded three females in a cutlass attack.
The intended robbery victim, Vibert Henry, told Kaieteur News that he was returning home after assisting some of the victims of the cutlass attack when he saw the police with their guns drawn.
At the time he did not know that his home was the target of the burglary.
Then gunshots started to ring out and he saw two youths running towards the back of his yard.
“When they saw the police they decided to run. He (the 12-year-old) did not make it over the pond and the police captured him,” Henry recalled.
None of the bullets hit the fleeing thieves but the police were shocked to find out that one of them was only 12 years old.
The youth admitted to this newspaper that he and his friend would normally raid yards that they had targeted previously and then strike when they were certain that no one was at home.