BREAKING: Gunmen invade Kaieteur News, staff ordered to lay face down
Three employees of Kaieteur News were early Monday morning placed to lay face down inside an office at their Saffon Street office where the newspaper is scripted and printed. Three gunmen, one armed with a handgun, invaded the newspaper’s office just after 01:00hrs Monday morning as the employees were still on duty.
63-Year-old Security Guard Noel Junior, 20-Year-old Graphic Designer Wayne Little, and 35-year-old Joshua Junior were all on duty when the bandits arrived and were also robbed of their personal effects including cash before the bandits made their way to the Accounts Department of the building.
At approximately 01:15hrs three males with surgical face masks and hats on their heads invaded the premises, the men showed up in a gold Spacio Motor Car which they parked at the front of the building, entered through the front door, and proceeded to terrorize and intimidate the media workers.
The employees were held at gunpoint and placed in an office to lie on the floor. One of the suspects remained with the victims while the other two proceeded to the upper flat of the building.
Police sources have indicated that the bandits wrenched opened the door to the Accounts Department and a padlock which secured a drawer on one of the desks was broken off. A small safe is situated under that said desk and is said to have had an undisclosed amount of cash. The safe was removed from the location.
We were told that the bandits spent roughly five minutes in the building before leaving through the said front door from which they entered the building before rejoining their car which left in a south direction along Saffon Street.
CCTV cameras attached to the building have been able to capture the movements of the bandits during the robbery operation. However, due to face masks, police have been unable to identify the suspects.
The incident of the robbery and placing the staff to lay on the floor comes just over sixteen years after five press men of the said Newspaper were executed at the Paper’s Eccles Location back in 2006 when gunmen with high-powered weapons invaded the facility, placing the men on the ground and riddled their bodies with bullets.
In 2016, a grenade that failed to explode was thrown at the vehicle of Kaieteur News owner and Publisher Glen Lall’s vehicle as it was parked in front of the Saffon Street office.
