Police Bust a Trio of Robbers in Lord Ridge Cemetery, Two Minors are Shot

A trio of brazen robbers, including two minors, succeeded in robbing Harpy Security on Antelope Street Extension, just after six o’clock on Thursday evening. The security company is located a stone’s throw away from a police checkpoint, but that didn’t prevent the daring robbery.  Thirty-four-year-old Dion Gentle had just reported to work when he came under attack.  One of the thieves held a gun to his head and took possession of a bag containing firearms, and a handheld radio, among other items. The robbers fled, but the police set chase and fired shots, injuring the two minors, one seventeen and the other sixteen-year old. The third suspect, twenty-three-year-old Harry Montero, was unharmed.  When the police caught up with them at the Lord Ridge Cemetery, the items were promptly recovered.  News Five’s Isani Cayetano reports.

Isani Cayetano, Reporting

A trio of armed thieves struck at a security firm on Antelope Street Extension on Thursday evening, shortly before news time.  The young men, the eldest of them identified as twenty-three-year-old Harry Montero, walked into the office of Harpy Security Services and proceeded to rob an employee by pointing a firearm at his head.  According to thirty-four-year-old Dion Gentle, he had only just arrived at the location moments earlier when the men pounced on him.  During the holdup, they were able to relieve the security guard of a bag containing two Smith and Wesson thirty-eight revolvers, a handheld radio and several other items.  The robbers, however, did not plan the hit correctly, nor did they map out their escape route properly, as the daring heist was carried out in proximity of a police mobile command center less than a hundred feet away.  In fleeing the scene, the trio made its way on foot into the area of the Lord Ridge Cemetery where they young men were pursued by a team of officers.  They were, however, quickly flanked by another team attached to the Special Patrol Unit.  Before the bandits were able to make it out onto the George Price Highway two of them, a seventeen-year-old and a sixteen-year-old, were shot in the right leg and a right upper thigh, respectively.  A third suspect, Harry Montero, was uninjured.  An ambulance was called in to transport the injured thieves to the K.H.M.H. for medical treatment while they remain under police guard.  Montero was taken into custody.

Over the past several months, there has been a spike in the number of robberies of security officers, where armed thieves have targeted security guards for their weapons.  Those firearms are then used in the commission of crimes elsewhere in the city.  Of note is that police were also able to recover a firearm recently which was found following a foiled robbery attempt.

Chester Williams

Chester Williams, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations)

“This morning, the police were able to recover one firearm off the streets.  That occurred in the Albert Street area.  Police were in pursuit of a person who was seen looking suspicious and the person managed to elude the police and when police searched an area, the police came across one nine millimeter pistol.  We believe that it was with the person and he may have been in the Albert Street area to try to perpetrate some criminal act.  And again, the vigilance of the police were able to avoid him executing what he may have had planned on Albert Street, and on Tuesday we had the recovery of two firearms on Reggae Street, two nine millimeter pistols as well.  And again, our operations continue, particularly in the Port Loyola area with a view to be able to retrieve or seize from off the streets as much firearms as we can.  After all, illegal firearms are creating problems for us.”

The firearms stolen during Thursday’s robbery have also been recovered. Reporting for News Five, I am Isani Cayetano.