AN­NA-LISA PAUL

Se­nior Re­porter

an­na-lisa.paul@guardian.co.tt

De­spite the mul­ti­tude of se­cu­ri­ty mea­sures im­ple­ment­ed at Caribbean Glass Spe­cial­ists Lim­it­ed in San Juan, ban­dits man­aged to gain en­try to the for­ti­fied build­ing yes­ter­day.

The armed ban­dits robbed and ter­rorised the fam­i­ly who owns the busi­ness be­fore es­cap­ing with sev­er­al firearms, cash and jew­ellery.

The three-storey build­ing on the East­ern Main Road, which boasts glass win­dows right around, hous­es the main busi­ness op­er­a­tion and dou­bles as the fam­i­ly home.

Po­lice said the fam­i­ly was asleep around 1.45 am yes­ter­day, when they were awak­ened by two armed sus­pects who had man­aged to gain ac­cess to the prop­er­ty by scal­ing a wall and ac­cord­ing a source, “com­ing down from the top.”

It is be­lieved the ban­dits sur­prised the fam­i­ly and they were un­able to re­act – al­though one fam­i­ly mem­ber has a li­censed firearm.

Az­iz Ram­s­ingh, 58, was tied up and se­vere­ly beat­en about the body by the sus­pects, who then stole three firearms, an undis­closed sum of cash and a quan­ti­ty of jew­ellery. The thieves then left the same way they en­tered and es­caped in a wait­ing car.

Of­fi­cers of the San Juan CID; In­ter-Agency Task Force and the North East­ern Di­vi­sion Task Force all re­spond­ed to re­ports of the home in­va­sion but grid pa­trols in the San Juan and Barataria ar­eas that con­tin­ued yes­ter­day were un­suc­cess­ful in lo­cat­ing the men.

Ram­s­ingh was tak­en to a pri­vate hos­pi­tal where he was be­ing treat­ed last night.

When Guardian Me­dia vis­it­ed the lo­ca­tion, work­ers con­firmed busi­ness op­er­a­tions con­tin­ued yes­ter­day de­spite the in­ci­dent.

Foren­sic of­fi­cers were said to have col­lect­ed work­able prints at the scene.

ASP Cal­len­dar and In­sp Ram­s­ingh vis­it­ed the scene and PC Em­manuel, of the San Juan CID, is in­ves­ti­gat­ing.