BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – AFTER almost eight months of intensive investigations, a fourth man was arrested and charged for his alleged involvement in the July 1, 2010 Royal Bank of Canada robbery.
According to a police press release, “Officers from the Criminal Investigations Department this morning (Thursday 24th February 2011) at 9:45 a.m. formally arrested, charged and cautioned 24-year- old Junior Stevens of Tabernacle on warrants in the first instance with three (3) counts of Assault With Intent to Rob and one (1) count of Robbery.”
Stevens now joins three of his accomplices - Exavier Elliott (28) of John England Village, Phillip Jones and Jervin Rawlins, both 27 years old and of Tabernacle Village - who were arrested on December 3, 2010, charged with armed robbery and remanded to Her Majesty’s Prison.
Police have indicated that Elliott, Jones and Rawlins were also given three additional charges for assault with intent to rob.
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.
Police have also indicated that investigations into the bank robbery are ongoing.
