Bandits rob West Dem. pastor, church members in attack

Oct 13, 2015 News

Criminals turned their attention to Sunday worshippers, carrying out two attacks. But only one was successful.
In one attack, a gunman attacked two women who were heading to church on Sunday morning, while in the other the actual church was stormed by three men armed with handguns later on Sunday night.
In both case police were at least able to make arrests that are greatly assisting them with their investigations.
In the first attack a lone bandit met with fierce resistance which led to him receiving a thrashing at the hands of some irate residents of Meadow Brook who responded to the alarms of his intended victims.
According to reports, during Sunday, a man armed with a handgun confronted two women at Waini Street, Meadow Brook, in an attempt to rob them. The women were on their way to church.
The women put up a resistance, and raised an alarm. Residents came out and arrested the suspect, who never got a chance to use his gun.
He was handed over to the police along with the unlicensed .32 pistol with one round that was found in his possession.
And later that evening at about 20:00 hours, Pastor Dillip Bikhari of the Universal Church at Meten-Meer-Zorg, West Coast Demerara, was in the process of closing the church when he, along with Brazilian Andrea Santos and two other church members, were attacked and held up by three men armed with handguns.
The men took away about $400,000, three cell phones, US$1,000 and a laptop computer and escaped.
The police responded to the report received and were able to arrest one of the suspects in the Meten-Meer-Zorg area in whose possession was found an unlicensed .357 Magnum revolver, one of the stolen cell phones and the stolen laptop computer.
He is in police custody assisting with the investigations.
Charges are likely to be laid soon in both cases.