The men, who initially were patrons of the Lot 36 La Grange business place, used their guns and feet to beat P. Geawan well known as 'Rambo', his wife, son and a brother-in-law. They robbed the man of $80,000 which was in two pouches in his pocket and escaped with some of his important documents. The man told Stabroek News that the men also escaped with money, the amount of which he did not want to disclose, which was in his wife's apron tied around her waist. They also escaped with a cellular phone.

However, in a release the police said the men escaped with $120,000 and a quantity of jewellery after discharging several rounds in the air. The police said two business places located in the same building were robbed around 7 pm (1900 hours) and the men escaped with $9,500 from the first business. According to the release, two of the bandits attempted to rob customer, Santos Rajnanan, who resisted and was stabbed about his body.

According to reports, the man is hospitalised at a city hospital.

Geawan told this newspaper that he owns both of the businesses - one is a pools hall and beer garden and the other is a wholesale outlet where he sells products from Banks DIH and DDL. According to the man, prior to the attack, the five men had been patrons at the beer garden. Two of them bought Guinness beverages and another bought orange juice from the wholesale outlet.

"If you see how dem man was well dressed and talking good English you would think deh working at some bank or something," the man commented. He said after the men finished making their purchases and consuming what they bought, they went out to the road where a white car was parked and changed their clothing. He said the woman who runs the beer garden observed the men putting on big overcoats and changing their boots to ones that were similar to those worn by the police. He said the woman suspected something was amiss but was too scared to alert anyone. The men then hid their guns under the overcoats and attacked the business places simultaneously. Two of them stood guard on the road, "with deh big long gun like police you know, walking up and down."

Two of them placed the customers and employees at the beer garden to lie down and robbed them and it was at this point that Rajnanan attempted to put up a fight. He was stabbed by one of the men.

Geawan said after the man was stabbed he fell to the ground. He was first taken to the West Demerara Regional Hospital before being transferred to the city.

The two other bandits then walked into the wholesale outlet where Geawan's brother-in-law was sitting and asked him the price for a case of Malta. Because he did not know he called out to his sister who was in the kitchen. When the woman came to the front the men attempted to take her apron but she resisted and one of them fired a shot into the shop over her head. The bullet hole was evident when Stabroek News visited yesterday.

Geawan said he heard the shot and immediately thought his wife might have been killed, but he remained hidden from the bandits until his brother-in-law started to call for "Rambo" alerting the men to the fact that there were other persons on the premises.

At the same time, one of his sons, who was having a bath, heard the shot and went running to the front where he was accosted and placed to lie on the ground. The entire family, except for another son, was placed to lie on the ground. Geawan said he had to beg his brother-in-law to lie down and remain quiet.

"Like how he not know about dem things, he deh running around and jumping up all the time so I had to tell he to lie down and stay quiet," the man recalled.

The men were not pleased with the money they received and inflicted a beating on the man and his wife. The man received an injury to the back of his head and over his left eye with a gun butt. His wife was kicked several times in the stomach and they both had to be treated at the regional hospital. Not satisfied, the men took Geawan upstairs and demanded more money. He said he and his wife stuck to the story of having stocked the shop only hours before and therefore had no more money. He said he begged them to take everything they wanted but not to hurt anyone.

"Dem man had a nice time in a short while. Money was not the problem but it was the blows," the man stated. He said one of the men threatened to kill him if he did not hand over more money and he was supported by one of his colleagues but when he pulled the trigger the bullet fell to the ground. "Like dem man never kill or shoot anyone before," he commented.

He said before the men drove off in their car they fired several shots in the air. The police were immediately contacted and the man said while they responded he was critical of the fact that they did not take the two Guinness bottles to dust for fingerprints.

Geawan believes that an incident which occurred about two weeks ago was connected to the robbery. He said two men had purchased items from the beer garden but did not have enough money to pay and asked him to change US$100 so they could finalise the transaction. He said he told them that he does not change US, but later decided to assist them.

He said he took the US$100 and after examining it, felt it was genuine and handed over the equivalent. However, when he attempted to change the money in the city he learnt that it was counterfeit.

It is not the first time the man has been robbed. He recalled that about four years ago bandits had robbed him of about $600,000. He said at that time he was at another location in the same village where bandits could have attacked him from four directions. He said before the robbery, because his name and telephone number were displayed in front of the business place, someone had telephoned and asked for 'Rambo' and when he answered the person told him they were "coming to rob." He said early the next morning he was robbed.

The man said since before that robbery he had applied for a firearm licence and was still waiting for it to be approved. "This person want pay and duh one want and then the firearm will cost about $300,000 so I just deh hey waiting," the man said.