Bandit cries for severed leg

LESS than a day after stealing a maxi-taxi at gunpoint in San Juan, three bandits crashed the stolen vehicle into a steel bridge in Barrackpore, resulting in the driver having his leg severed while his two accomplices sustained serious internal injuries, on Wednesday afternoon. Eyewitnesses told Newsday the bandit, whose leg was severed, lay bleeding on the road at the crash scene and cried out for his severed limb. Police said the limb was recovered from a river below the bridge moments after the accident, but doctors could not reattach the leg, because it sustained irreparable damage to major nerves and veins.

Up to late yesterday, the one-legged bandit was warded at San Fernando General Hospital along with his two accomplices, aged 22 and 19, who suffered internal haemorrhaging as well as shoulder and leg injures. All three are being kept under police guard. According to police reports, the three accosted maxi-taxi driver Joseph Singh in Arima and relieved him of his red-band maxi-taxi at gunpoint, on Tuesday night. Singh of San Juan, was taken to Ben Lomond Village, off Gasparillo, where the bandits dropped him off. The bandits later repainted the maxi-taxi with white oil paint in an effort to disguise it. Around 3.40 pm on Wednesday, the 23-year-old bandit was driving the maxi-taxi along Rochard Douglas Road, Barrackpore, with his two accomplices.

When he attempted to overtake a pick-up van driven by Baldeo Lutchman, who was driving onto Rochard Douglas Road from Ramlal Trace, the maxi-taxi struck the right front wheel of the pick-up van, causing the stolen vehicle to crash into a metal bridge. On impact, the driver’s left leg was severed from its knee and fell into the river. Villagers who witnessed the crash ran to the men’s assistance and retrieved the leg from the river, placing it in an icepack. The one-legged suspect reportedly lay on the road bleeding profusely and crying out for his severed leg.