- as gunmen attack armoured truck

Heavily armed gunmen killed the occupant of a car and wounded two guards at around 01:00 hrs yesterday during a daring attack on Professional Guard Service payroll van near Agricola.

Police said that Dexter Barry, 22, of Lot 15 First Street, Lilliendaal, East Coast Demerara, was shot at the back of the head while sitting in a passing car.

He was killed instantly.

The driver of the PGS van, Joseph Bobb, was shot in the face and neck, while Donald Headley, the company's Chief Administration Officer, who was sitting in the passenger seat, was shot in the shoulder.

At press time, they were both undergoing surgery at the Woodlands Hospital.

Three other guards, who sitting at the back of the vehicle with the cash, escaped unhurt, although the gunmen fired at least 16 shots at the right side of the vehicle.

They were saved by the thick armoured plate at the van's sides.

The gunmen, numbering about eight, escaped in a waiting car. Some reports indicate that they escaped into McDoom.

“It is horrible, but my men put up quite a fight,” PGS Managing Director

Dougal Kirkpatrick told Kaieteur News, while revealing that the guards had returned fire at the gunmen as they were fleeing with the payroll.

“An innocent person was caught in the crossfire and he is now dead.”

Kaieteur News understands that the guards had collected cash from KFC outlets in Vlissengen Road and Stabroek and also from the Pizza Hut.

They were heading up the East Dank of Demerara when the gunmen opened fire on the vehicle, GKK 354, as it was passing Agricola.

At the same time, Barry was passing in a car and he, too was hit.

The guards have told police that they were at the back of the vehicle and were unable to say how many gunmen were involved in the attack.

Eyewitnesses said that a police van had been patrolling the area shortly before the gunmen struck.

According to one eyewitness, the gunmen had been circling the area in a car before the payroll van came on the scene.

They then parked on the western side of the public road, apparently waiting for the van to arrive.

The source said that as soon as the payroll van reached Agricola, the men, who had rifles and handguns, opened fire, wounding the driver and the other man who was sitting near him.

The eyewitness estimated that about 60 gunshots were fired.

Kirkpatrick said that after the gunfire ceased, the three guards at the rear of the vehicle assumed that the attack was over and made the mistake of opening the van.

It was then that the gunmen pounced on them and removed the payroll.

One of the occupants of the car in which Barry was in said that he was in the back seat when he saw four men, standing on the road and wearing black bullet-proof vests.

He said that one of the men, who was armed with a high-powered rifle, opened fire on the car, fatally wounding Barry.

Eyewitnesses said that the bandits escaped in a waiting car.

When Kaieteur News arrived at the scene, the payroll van was parked in the centre of the roadway.

Several spent shells were also strewn on the road.

The incident is a grim reminder of similar deadly attacks that occurred on the East Bank of Demerara during the peak of the crime wave.

On February 26, 2006, a small army of gunmen, operating with military precision, slaughtered eight people in Eccles and Agricola.

Shortly after, a group of gunmen, stormed a house at Mc Doom. When they finally left, 12-year-old Kevin Brown lay dead from a shotgun blast to the abdomen, while his mother was shot in her upper left side.

On August 8, several gunmen also killed five Kaieteur News workers, a Bagotstown businessman, and a taxi driver.

Saturday 08-18-2007