BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AFTER more than five months of intensive investigations, three young men were formally arrested, charged and remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison for the Royal Bank of Canada robbery.
On remand are Philip Jones and Jervin Rawlins, both 27 years old and of Tabernacle Village, and Exzavier Elliott (28) of John England Village.
According to a police press release, “On Thursday 3rd December 2010 at the Basseterre Police Station, officers from the Criminal Investigations Department felt proud to be in a position to formally arrest and charge three persons on warrant in the first instance for the armed robbery of a certain customer who was at the bank.”
On Thursday, July 1, 2010, a number of armed bandits had staged a daring early morning holdup at the Wellington Road Branch of the Royal Bank of Canada (Valu Mart Complex), which had left two female employees traumatised and had to seek treatment at the JNF Hospital.
On arrival at the crime scene, SKNVibes had observed heavy police and army presence while a unit from the Emergency Medical Services was about to transport the two females to the hospital.
A female, who said she was outside the bank when the incident occurred, recounted what she observed.
“Shortly before nine o’clock this morning, I had parked my vehicle and was heading towards Valu Mart to purchase some chicken when I saw a man exiting the bank. He was grabbed by a masked man, who was standing at the door, and he told the man to loose him because he ain’t got no business in there and he was leaving.
“The masked man released him and he ran towards me shouting, ‘Miss, miss call the police there is a robbery in the bank.’ I asked him what happened and he said that four armed men with white masks and capes entered the bank and were standing on the counter demanding money, while another one, dressed in the same manner, was at the door.
“After listening to him, I immediately called the police, but after waiting for some time and didn’t see them coming, I called again. While making the second call, I observed another masked man was at a short distance from the bank…I guess he was the lookout man. Suddenly the door opened and the five men came out slowly walking and was joined by the sixth man, and they started running through the passageway between the bank and the building in which the Caribbean Lottery Company is located,” the woman said.
She also said that if the police had arrived shortly after she had made the first call “they would have confronted the men, because they took quite some time after that before making their escape”.
A Sandy Point man, who is currently on remand for the armed robbery of 17 tourists in the vicinity of Brimstone Hill, was shortly after taken into custody to assist the police with their investigations, but was released on the afternoon of Monday, July 5.
The release further stated that investigations into this robbery are ongoing.
