Two
killed in attack on shop
ATTACKED:
the shop robbed at 17 Broad Street, Charlestown
on Sunday night. |
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A
BUSINESSMAN was Sunday night shot dead and a customer fatally
stabbed when armed bandits waged an attack on a wholesale and
retail beverage shop at 17 Broad Street, Charlestown,
Georgetown, during a birthday celebration.
Dead
is proprietor Albert Peters, 46, who had been residing
and operating his beverage business on the premises for some
20 years, neighbours said.
He
leaves to mourn his wife Asha, two young adult sons and a
two-year-old adopted son.
The
other person killed was identified as `Shurland', a mobile
music cassette vendor who was among the group of about eight
or 10 persons in the shop celebrating the birth anniversary of
the son of a neighbour.
The
badly traumatised widow and her sons who witnessed the ghastly
murder of their loved one, vowed they would no longer operate
the business there, and late yesterday afternoon packed their
belongings on a truck and abandoned the building.
Asha
tearfully exclaimed, "I can't stay here anymore...No
more, no more!"
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KILLED:
Albert Peters
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The
grief stricken widow kissed her neighbours goodbye and left
the premises.
Reports
said that around 19:30 hrs Sunday, the group of patrons was in
the shop 'having a drink' when a man entered and called for a
bottle of Guinness.
Asha
sold him the Guinness and he went back outside. She said that
shortly afterwards the man returned, and about seven others,
armed with guns swooped in, demanding money.
Even
after relieving the business of an undisclosed amount of cash,
they proceeded to terrorise and rob the customers of jewellery,
cash and cellular phones, witnesses said.
The
cassette vendor reportedly hid in a washroom, but was pursued
by the bandits who mercilessly stabbed him in the region of
the abdomen.
As
the men unleashed terror in the tiny neighbourhood known as
'Berlin', residents looked on helplessly from their windows,
but out of fear for their own lives, dared not venture near.
Witnesses
said that as the terror began, two neighbours whisked Albert
to safety, and hid him behind a building, but realising that
his wife and sons were at the mercy of the bandits, he came
out of hiding and stood across the road to see what was
happening to his family.
It
was at this point that he was shot, and his body lay bleeding
on the road, they said.
Both
victims were rushed to hospital but were pronounced dead on
arrival.
GRIEF:
Albert Peters' weeping widow Asha, holding her
two-year-old adopted son, right, being comforted by
relatives yesterday.
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Meanwhile,
as the men continued their rampage, they beat Asha with a gun
butt in her head, and pointed a gun at her adopted son,
threatening to kill him if they did not get money.
Sunday
night's shootings at the Broad Street shop came just 10 days
following the horrific killings at another business place in
Charlestown, which also clamed the lives of a business
proprietor and two other persons.
On
January 22, two neighbouring business premises, `Pet Boy's
Shop' and 'Steven Beer Garden and Cheap Shop' in Ketley
Street, just a few corners away, were invaded by bandits and
patrons robbed and shot.
Proprietor
of `Steven Beer Garden and Cheap Shop',
Leonard
Parjohn, 31,
was shot in the head and killed in the presence of his family.
The
other person, a passerby Carlton Norton who was returning from
a nearby bakery was also fatally wounded.
Roxanne
Reece, who was wounded in the crossfire, died a few days later
at the Georgetown Hospital.
