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Scared: Looknauth Prashad (An Aubrey Crawford photo)
Looknauth Prashad, manager of the RSM Lumber Yard and General Hardware
located in the compound of the Melanie Cinema, told Stabroek News yesterday that
he and his boss, Muntaz Ali, were simply fed up. On February 14, they
were attacked and robbed for the fourth time
since September and, according to Prashad, a lone gunman made another attempt on
Friday.
“Since last Friday [Feb-ruary 14] we were trying to make a decision,
but we were just holding out to see if things would have changed. Then [on
Friday] at about 12:30 [pm], I was sitting right here at this desk, when a guy
came up with a bicycle and whipped out a handgun. He say, ‘Pass de money! Pass the f...ing
money!’ So I say, ‘Me ain’t got money.’
By that time a customer came in and the customer start to say, ‘Wuh going on
hey? Wuh going on? Yo all can’t do this kind of thing.’”
Moving out: The R.S.M. Lumber Yard at Melanie Damishana, East Coast Demerara (Photo by Aubrey Crawford)
Prashad said the gunman got scared, put his gun in his pocket and rode
away.
It was after that incident that Prashad’s boss said it was time to move
the business to Enmore, further up the coast.
“I am feeling very disgusted.
The gun... when they placethe gun to you - your head, your belly - you can’t
eat, you can’t sleep. You just imagining things in your sleep night-time. No
government official did not even come to give you a word or support. I apply for
firearm and it is... pending. I [am] feeling traumatized and scared of being
killed. You nervous, you shaky when these men done pull
the gun on you... As such my boss consider his losses over thousands
of dollars and he decided to close down the business at Melanie,” said the
manager.
The lumberyard has been in operation for about six years. Its
relocation would mean some inconvenience for about six employees, who are living
in the area.
“We wouldn’t knock them off, we would find other work for them
in the meanwhile. Since the cinema close down, we are trying to do other
business.”
Sunday, February 23, 2003