Belmont man abducted and beaten

IN AN EFFORT to save himself from a third bite from the same dog, a 32-year-old Belmont man threw a stone at the animal after it rushed him around 3.15 am yesterday.

However, the stone that 32-year-old Ricardo Seepaulsingh threw did not strike the dog, but landed about 10 feet away from a group of four men, three of whom are brothers. The group became enraged at the straigtener/painter, who admitted in an interview with Sunday Newsday yesterday from his hospital bed that he gave the men “some talk” after they told him he had no right to throw stones. He said they hurled racial slurs at him and fired shots at him. Seepaulsingh, who was at the time riding his motorbike east along  the St Francois Valley Road in the vicinity of Fifth Dimension Panyard, Serreau Road, said he then left for home. Thinking his problems had ended there, Seepaulsingh, on arrival at his Upper St Francois Valley Road home, telephoned the Belmont Police and while speaking to a female officer, heard four shots outside his home. Seepaulsingh said the officer heard the shots and a party of officers under Cpl Edwards, was despatched. The petite man said  that from inside his house he heard the men say they were going to kill him and his family.

In order to protect his family, Seepaulsingh said he came out of his home, after which the men snatched him and shoved him into one of two vehicles the men came in. “When I reached in the car I kicked one of the doors and it struck one of them and he became enraged and started to beat me,” he said, grimacing in pain. He was hit with the butt of the gun several times and suffered a wound to his head as a result. One of his front teeth was broken and he showed Sunday Newsday a bruise on the right side of his stomach. He also had plasters to the left side of his forehead and at the right side of his head. The men then drove off with Seepaulsingh, who was taken to a room at Serreau Road, where he was again beaten. While in the room, the four men heard the police and fled the scene, Seepaulsingh said. He said he then kicked open the door to the room but when he came out he observed another group close to the one who assaulted him. “I ran and hid in some bushes for about an hour at Upper St Francois Valley Road,” Seepaulsing told Sunday Newsday.  He said when he thought the coast was clear he came out and went to seek assistance at a woman’s house. Seepaulsingh said the woman did not come outside but called the police, who came and carried him to the city hospital, where he is in stable condition.

The police later arrested the four men, two of whom are 17, another 14, while the fourth one is 21. They were being quizzed up to last night at the Belmont Criminal Investigations Department. Belmont police said they found no firearms on the suspects. However, they said, the scene was visited and a projectile from a spent round of ammunition was found. “They had a shotgun and a handgun,” Seepaulsingh said, later saying that he was grateful for coming out of the incident alive. The four men are facing charges of kidnapping, assault, possession of firearm and possession of ammunition, shooting with intent and other offences, police said. Officers of the Belmont CID are continuing investigations.