Supermarket owner shot, bandits escape with $7,500

A 35-year-old su-permarket proprietor was shot in his abdomen when he attempted to foil a robbery at his businessplace in which three armed men escaped with $7,500.  Danesh Persad, owner of Lall’s Supermarket Ltd, who was shot as the bandits were making their escape, is warded in a satisfactory condition at the San Fernando General Hospital.

According to police reports, around 7.45 pm, three men armed with guns entered the supermarket, at New Colonial Road Barrackpore. Reports there were three cashiers on duty and several customers in the building when the bandits fired a shot in the ceiling and announced a hold up. While one of the bandits remained by the door, the other two ordered the cashiers to dump all the money from the cash registers into a bag. Police said, Persad was walking into the building when the bandit at the door fired a single shot. The pellets from the shot gun scattered and struck Persad about his abdomen area.

The men then ran out of the building, jumped the wall and escaped. Investigators suspect that the men had a car waiting for them. The EHS ambulance arrived shortly after and rushed the injured man to the hospital where he was treated and admitted to Ward Three. Visiting the scene was a party of officers led by Ag Sgt Rajkumar and Ag Cpl Ramdeen attached to the Barrackpore Police Station. Officers recovered a spent shell inside the supermarket. Sitting up on his hospital bed yesterday, Persad told Newsday that this was the first time that his businessplace was robbed. Persad said he was about to drive his truck, which was on the roadway, into the supermarket’s car park when he saw the men enter the grocery. The businessman said the first thing he thought about was the protection of his workers and businesspace and armed himself with a piece of iron.

“I had to defend my workers and my business,” he said. As he walking towards the building the bandit at the door fired a shot and the three bandits ran off. “I did not even realise that I was shot until I saw the blood running down my hand,” he added. Persad said doctors told him he was lucky the pellets did not hit any of his vital organs, and that it would not be wise to remove the pellets because that could cause extensive muscle and tissue damage. Investigations are continuing.