Masked Men Attack Shopkeeper

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Details: Parent Category: Feb 2012; Category: Week end Feb 18th, 2012; Published on Monday, 20 February 2012 20:20; Hits: 613

A Westerhall, St. David’s shopkeeper is nursing injuries after being severely chopped by attacking masked men. Geddes Gilbert who operates his shop at Stone Street in Westerhall was severely chopped after two masked men armed with a gun and a cutlass assaulted him after failing to obtain money from his business outlet last Friday night.

A family source told The New Today Newspaper the attack took place as Gilbert was just about to close the shop for the night. The source said just as the shopkeeper made his last sale of a Busta soft drink and was in the process of closing the shop, two masked men approached him.

“He said when he saw these two men approached him he realised one had a gun and one had a cutlass,” said the source. Gilbert reportedly managed to push one of the masked men to the ground before running outside from the back of the shop.

The masked bandits went to the cash register but did not receive any cash since the register was already cleared. The source said the attackers then pursued Gilbert and chopped him in the area of the left elbow. “When they pulled the draw, they realised it had no money so they chopped him behind the shop,” he added.

The bandits proceeded to search Gilbert’s vehicle and after failing to get any money then smashed one of the windows with a cutlass. The men also took away two cellular phones, one of which is used by the shopkeeper to provide credit for Digicel customers. This newspaper learnt that after being chopped Gilbert sought help from a neighbour.

However, in the process of trying to alert Gilbert’s relatives about what happened, one of the bandits moved and attacked the neighbour, shooting him with a pellet gun in several areas of his body. The two injured Westerhall men had to be rushed to the St. George’s General Hospital where they were admitted as patients.

Almost eight months ago, Gilbert’s father, Tony Telesford was attacked by two men in the vicinity of the same shop at Stone Road. Telesford who works as a salesman for Choice Bakery had just delivered bread to his son when two masked men armed with a cutlass and gun attacked him.

He was robbed of cash amounting to $900.00, as well as being chopped by the masked men. Police charged Dillon Bonaparte and Jason Lyons from Corinth, St. David’s with robbery with violence in connection with that June 2011 incident involving Telesford SR.

Meanwhile, the Holy Spirit Roman Catholic Church at Mt. Parnassus, St. George’s has been desecrated. A well-placed source told The New Today Newspaper the church was broken into last week and suffered damage to its gold tabernacle, while a number of items were taken away.

The intruder also took away one transformer, eight packets of candles, a quantity of towels, souvenirs, mugs and cups.