BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – BANDITS last night (Jan. 22) shot a passenger bus driver in his face during a robbery at the Dollar Stretcher Supermarket at Bourkes Road, Sandy Point.
On arrival at the scene, SKNVibes learned that about 8:45 p.m. while Vincent ‘Saga’ Jarvis was shopping in the supermarket, two armed, masked men entered the building, shot him on the right side of his face and robbed the entity of a large sum of money.
This media house spoke to two eyewitnesses on condition of anonymity. The first one said that while on his way to top up his phone, he noticed two men, dressed in camouflage pants, sitting close to the entrance of the supermarket talking to a third person who was on the Island Main Road.
“I entered the supermarket, and after getting my top up I saw Saga and we spoke for a few minutes before leaving. While on my way home, which is just a short distance away, I heard the sound of a gunshot and I turned back to go to the supermarket, but one of my neighbours stopped me.
“After a few minutes, I saw two men running out of the supermarket with guns in their hands. Then suddenly a car pulled up and a police officer in civilian clothes went behind one of the posts and fired a shot after them. They ran to the left side of the supermarket along a track and came out on Bourkes Main Road.
“The officer started shooting at them again and the two men returned fire while running and disappeared from view,” the first eyewitness said.
The second one said he was within the supermarket when the two men entered.
“I was there to purchase some foodstuff when two men entered the supermarket. Both of them were dressed in long blue overcoats, wearing camouflage bulletproof vests and masks with just two tiny slits to the eyes. You could have only seen their eyes…all other parts of their faces were concealed. One of them had a pistol and the other one had a shotgun. They had on white footwear, which were smeared with what seemed to be construction debris.
“One of them shouted, ‘Everybody get on the ground.’ But nobody responded because we all thought that they were police officers on some sort of mission. However, in a louder tone he repeated his command and everybody, except Saga, lie on the ground. At that point, Saga was talking to one of the customers who was lying on the ground and the one with the shotgun went up to him and said, ‘Get down…I told you to get down’.
“Saga remained standing and the bandit put the shotgun close to his face and shot him. He fell down next to the bread stall. When I looked at Saga from where I was lying, I saw a big hole on the right side of his face and a lot of skin was hanging from it,” he said.
The eyewitness explained that the robber with the handgun then went to the cashier and demanded she hand over all the money.
“The one with the pistol collected all the money from the cash register. He also took away the cash pan and the other one took the bag that Saga had with all the money he made today. They spent about seven to 10 minutes before exiting the supermarket. After they left I immediately went over to Saga, who was on the ground bleeding profusely. He said, “Wha happen…ah get shoot?’ I guess he was in a state of shock but he was still able to communicate.
“While we were trying to render assistance to Saga, I heard shots firing outside and I cautiously came out of the building. I understood that the two criminals were running through the track west of the supermarket when a plainclothes police officer fired at them. He hit one of them and he fell to the ground, but he got up and returned fire. Both of them continued firing as they ran along Bourkes Main Road and made good their escape.”
This media house also learned that the bandit whom the police officer shot at might not have been seriously wounded because the bullet had struck the bulletproof vest.
SKNVibes further learned that after the incident took place, a squad car arrived with a number of police officers, and while in the supermarket one of the lawmen fidgeted with his service pistol and shot himself in the foot.
Two ambulances had arrived at the scene, and while the first one transported the 61-year-old Vincent ‘Saga’ Jarvis to the JNF Hospital, the second one shortly after took the officer to the same hospital for treatment to his injury.
A number of spent shells were found in the area and taken into police custody for further analysis as investigations continue.
