Shot fired as gang strikes during game

No one wants to talk and the neighbours were all “in bed at the time”, but are acutely aware of the out of control gun crime that is leaving people frightened in their own homes.

“You don’t know what you’re facing anymore,” one neighbour said yesterday, after Monday night’s robbery in George Town’s Greenwood Drive.

“You come home after work and anything could happen. It’s not a good thing,” he said.

The Monday-night incident follows a spate of similar attacks in or around private homes since early January, most recently on 7 February in George Town’s Palm Dale area when three masked, armed men broke into the home of a 35-year-old male and his 32-year-old female companion, robbing them of the receipts from a round-robin tournament at a local bar.

In the latest hold-up, just before midnight on Monday, two masked men, one wielding a handgun, confronted three men playing dominoes in the front yard of a Greenwood Drive home in George Town.

Taking the cash from the people playing, the three fled eastward, firing a shot into the air as they ran.

“No one was hurt,” said another observer, “but they wanted everyone to know this was real, that no one should mess with them.”

The tent-covered yard of the green-painted house has at least four small tables scattered across the stones covering the ground, littered with bottles, empty snack bags and a worn-looking dog asleep by the driveway. A satellite dish towers over the cars parked everywhere on one side of the space, while a small block of apartments to the rear suggests constant activity.

A scoreboard, propped on a chair, indicates “The Swamp” outpointed its rivals, suggesting frequent gatherings and ongoing bets on endless dominoes matches.

A woman in the home claimed to speak only Spanish, and disappeared inside when questioned about the events. According to police, the assault occurred at 11:40pm Monday, although the report did not come until just after midnight.

“The male complainant reported that he and two other males were outside a residence at Greenwwood Drive, George Town, playing dominoes when two masked men wearing dark clothing approached them on foot and demanded cash.

“At the time the suspects were armed with what appeared to be handguns,” the report said. “The suspects fled the scene on foot after taking a quantity of cash from each of the males.

“No descriptions are available at this time.

“One shot was reported to have been discharged whilst the suspects were fleeing the scene. No one was injured in the incident,” police said.

The robbery is the 11th in five weeks. On 6 January assailants robbed a pizza delivery man in Patrick’s Island, while on 15 January, in separate incidents, thieves stole a bag of cash from a man outside his George Town home, and a masked assailant broke into a Captain Curry’s Drive house in West Bay, taking a wallet and two cellphones from the occupant.

Other incidents occurred on 9 January, 18 January, 19 January, 24 January, 31 January and 2 February.

Police declined to say yesterday if Monday night’s robbery was part of a larger trend of personal assaults, but indicated a statement would be forthcoming.

Meanwhile, Chief Inspector Richard Barrow said gambling had not been ruled out as a factor in the incident, but that investigations were ongoing.