Two robberies in one day
(CNS): Police have now confirmed that two armed robberies took place in two different districts Wednesday within a few hours of each other. The first took place at a convenience store in Walkers Road, George Town, at around 11:35 in the morning while the second happened in Bodden Town at a pawn shop some two hours later. One man has been arrested, however, and an imitation gun and mask have been recovered following the hold up at the Cashwiz robbery after an unarmed officer confronted and apprehended the suspect. No one was hurt in either of the robberies, which come less than a week after the television centre was held up by three masked men with guns.
Police said the first robbery of the day was at Shop Right in Walkers Road when a man, who had his head covered with a large yellow cloth, entered the shop and threatened staff with a knife as he demanded cash. He then left the store with a sum of money and a small quantity of cigarettes. The suspect can be seen above and below in CCTV stills.
Pictures supplied by the RCIPS show him approaching the shop from Windsor Park Road. Heis described as being about 5’ 10” in height, wearing blue three quarter length baggy shorts, a baggy blue short sleeved polo shirt and white training shoes with diagonal stripes. He had his head covered with a yellow cloth, which is said to resemble the type of cloths used by people such as gardeners who work outdoors.
The second robbery occurred at Cashwiz on Bodden Town Road at 1:30pm and the police were alerted as the robbery was in progress.
As officers arrived on the scene the suspect was running from the direction of the store and he threatened the unarmed officers with a gun. The officers challenged the man and he dropped the weapon. Police immediately arrested him and moved the firearm. Both the gun and the mask suspected of being used by the perpetrator in the robbery were recovered by law enforcement officials.
The gun has been forensically tested and was confirmed to be an imitation weapon. The man was arrested on suspicion of robbery and remains in police custody while enquiries continue.
Acting Superintendent Robert Scotland said described the actions of the officers who confronted the robbery suspect as nothing short of heroic.
“They were threatened by an armed suspect and without thinking of their own safety and wellbeing they moved in quickly to ensure that he was arrested and could not harm any members of the public,” the senior officer said.
“Fortunately the gun has been confirmed as an imitation – but the officers did not know that at the time. Their actions are testament to the dedication of our staff to do all that they can to keep these islands safe from those who would threaten that safety through the criminal use of firearms,” Scotland added.
Anyone who has any information about the Walkers Road crime or the suspect should contact George Town police station on 949-4222, the RCIPS tip-line on 949-7777, or Crime Stoppers 800-8477 (TIPS).
Those who have information about the Cashwiz robbery are asked to contact Bodden Town police station on 947-2220, the RCIPS tip-line 949-7777 or Crime Stoppers 800-8477(TIPS).
Category: Crime
Excellent job to the police.
Good job RCIPS for catching that person! Now, for the toy gun and robbery that should be about 3 years or so in a cozy prison when it come to our laws. When the police actually do their part the penalty is soft, what a thing.
RCIP are NOT doing their best! They are an embarrassment to the Cayman Islands! This is unacceptable. A robbery every other day and no conviction, they are not doing a damn thing to prevent these crimes and sure as hell not doing a ******** thing after them either. RCIP you are truly worthless! My friends and family are not safe by themselves on this Island anymore. RCIP you have let down your fellow Caymanians down. It’s time to cowboy the ***** up and get something done! OR I GUARANTEE YOU THAT THE CAYMANIAN POPULATION WILL TAKE MATTERS INTO THEIR OWN HANDS SEEING AS YOU CAN’T DEAL WITH MEDIOCRE CRIMES!
Generally I agree with you that the RCIPS could be doing better. But I must take my hat off to the BT police for their quick reaction and proactive policing on this one. I remember how quick they were to act when Mostyn's gas station got robbed a while back too.
Lets remember to give credit where it is due, even if generally there is room for improvement.
You seem to have missed the boat here. It is not police that are committing the robberies; those robberies are committed by the products of the same society that you and I are apart, the same society that turned a blind eye to crime and criminals and refused to assist the police with information. Police cannot be everywhere. I read Dr. Frank's article in the Compass the other week talking about police and quite frankly, I never expected any better from him either. However, until the day when the public partners with the police to make life difficult for criminals to get away with crime, unsolved crime will continue to grow. You and I are in society every day. We all see things. I suggest you do your part and let the police know what you see going on and by who. They are willing to respond, how about you?
That sounds great but the police are corrupt and cannot be trusted with information you provide them. There is no point in having a reward if you won't live to claim it.
That population thing you mentioned soon come. Dont YOU worry.
If a person pointed an imitation firearm at a police officer in most countries they would be summarily shot by that officer in self defence.The police (and public) are unable to tell the difference between a real & imitation weapon when it is pointed at them, but the police here are expected to approach and apprehend these gun toting thugs with no way to defend themselves. This is why these daylight robberies are now common place here in Cayman, there is just no deterrent for them to not do it. If the Police were armed and got to drop a few of these fools we are seeing carrying out the robberies,I'd wager you would see a big drop in crime overall.
Right, because that (armed police) has worked so well in other places like the USA or Central America at stopping gun-toting criminals in their tracks.
Note – this isn't a 'do nothing' post but 'arming the police' is not a panacea. its nto even effective at reducing crime rates.
For those who don't like 'complaints without suggestions', here's two:
A) more patrols. More routaine, foot/bicyle patrols. Target teh 'small' 'community' crimes. the grafiti, the loitering, the 'known' pot heads/sellers. No more broken windows, less crime.
Or, B) engage in more 'over the top' policing. Kicking in doors at 2am on rumours. Sure it will upset a lot of us who didn't do anythign but got swept up by mistake, but at least the commentators will feel safer. (And be safer. Statistically they'll find somethign arrestable every few bust-ins.)
Not disagreeing with either post just offering another suggestion that should be implemented along side the ones given. Arm the law abiding civilian populace. Let us help the police by being able to defend ourselves within our homes.
Poverty and Ignorance causes drug abuse, violence and crime -not the other way around. Your high-fat/high-sugar/high-carb/high-cholesterol/alchohol diet will lower your intelligence more than pot ever will. In any event, I think the RCIPS should be congratuated at deterring and continuing to hunt down perpetrators ofviolent acts against the community.
Actually it is a vicious cycle.
The police in England manage just fine in these situations and situations much worse than this. It is part of their job, and the are trained to efficiently and effectively deal with situations such as this. Its a pity the police officers here in Cayman don't get full police cadet training and guidance as they do in England. Then perhaps they'd be better equipped to deal with these situations.
Oh please, half the police force are ENGLISH.
The nationality of the police force is irrelevant. The lack of rules and regulations, and more particularly effective enforcement of PACE here in Cayman is in stark contrast to the UK, as is the training of Caymanians into the police force. The point I was making (perhaps badly) is that they should be sent to police cadet school in the UK and have the benefit of the full and proper training received by English police officers. If the rules and regulations and PACE were properly enforced here, the English police officers wouldn't be able to come here and seemingly 'forget' all their training and skills as currently seems to be the practice.
My response to you would be; Who has been in control of this police force since its inception,who has been responsible for its development strategy, who has consistantly elevated and promote inept and incompetent loyal lackeys and stooges. Who has imported personel from jurisdictions with a culture of corruption If the things you speak are not being done or implemented who do you think is ultimately responsible? Part of the problem is Colonialism is still alive and well, not call that anymore now renamed the "White Paper" and Good governance.
I think the point is that many of them have been to police cadet school in the UK and have had the benefit of the full and proper training received by English police officers because indeed they are English.
And my point, which everyone seems to be missing, is that Caymanian officers should be afforded the same training.
The implication of that is that the failures are only those of Caymanian officers and the UK officers are doing just fine because of their superior training. That is simply not true and so getting English cadet training cannot be the answer. The police force is run by expats (mostly English) and is majority expat.
aaaaah man try hush is that why they keep sending UK officers to Chicago and Other SWAT/Gang US police departments to get proper training in Tactics and strategy to deal with these type of violent situations. Typical though, too many of unnah experts here now!
The police are in fact armed. Armed response units are available. Given the competency of the police many of them should not be allowed near guns anyway!
Good job not too still!
Big up the Police on this one. Good job well done.
About time they caught someone let’s see if they will release him before weekend
Please give the police the respect that is due to them. They are doing the best they can with what resources they have. Criminals are walking the strret armed, but the public is expecting that unarmed police must solve the crimes. How stupid?? Get real, the police had every right to shoot the hell of of this criminal when he pointed a gun at them. I trust that the judge really teach this one a lesson.
Resources they have you must be joking? The reason criminals have that level of confidence to threaten the police is because of the lack of respect and contempt many criminals hold for the Police, We have never in the history of these islands had this amount of armed robberies as well as foreign armed police roaming and driving around. Sadly this disrespect and comtempt comes as result of a number of serious issues which have remain unresolved corruption, lack of confidence,too many foreign nationals and lack of respect and regard for the local population.The apparent arrogance and comtempt the leadership holds for Cayman and its people is very clear by the manner in which it allocates and manages the resources it has. The blantant disregard and disrespect held for past achievements is reflected in the promotion of incompetent and loyal cronies and the dismantling and removal of effective units by these promoted henchmen does not help either. Finally i would like to say that the police officers who confronted this arm robber should recieve the praise and admiration they are due for their bravery in this situation from both leadership and the us the public.
Look at the shoes,
could it be the same ones on the bike?
Actually the strings in these ones are a quarter of an inch longer.
You have a point there!
You can see that this is a slimmer person, he was missing couple of weeks ago but I guess the police now found him. This is a serious matter, I know this young man for years and I could never, in a million years imagine that he will do such a thing.
We are loosing our youths, I know is a bad choice and every action has a consequence but seriously, we need to take a stand and declare some things in the atmosphere, Lucifer is trying to take control of these Islands and only if we stop pointing fingers and stand together, we can defeat the enemy!
Just a thought…….
Well done, thanks
I think we often forget that some of the cops on this rock do actually give a s**t. Nice job to all those concerned, hopefully your colleagues will follow suit.
Thats just the duty and work of a good Policeman. Very good they were at the scene to catch him.
Once again, we have some pretty useless photos of the robbers from "way up high". If the cameras were better positioned, maybe at eye level and zoomed closer, we might get a better idea of what they look like. Also, maybe identifying marks might be visible, such as tattoos or scars. Let's face it, if they are there to rob the place, chances are they're going to be in front of the cash drawer at some point. And, how about a system that records audio along with the video. At least then you would have something to identify them by. Usually criminals speak and often shout during the robbery and, that recording, or portions of it, could be played back for the public to hear and even help to identify them.
And exactly how long do you think the cameras would last placed at eye level?
For clarification, I'm only suggesting placing the cameras at eye level when they are located behind a counter or other barrier, and out of the reach of the public. Also, the recorded video is located remotely and not stored in the camera itself, so grabbing the camera won't help the robber.
Cameras are positioned up high so that perps don't disable them.
It is unlawful to record both video and audio of a person without their consent, be it public or private.
Simple: put up a sign saying that the premises are subject to video and audio surveillance and you have implied consent of all persons who choose to come.
where do you get your facts?? because you are way off.
busy bodies like you who spend all their time moaning about thi sor that and get in the way of people trying to help themselves against crime are just straaaange peeps (along with defence lawyers) … i just dont get it!
Have you told the government this? They just invested thousands in cameras all over the place and also all the tourists that come ashore with their cameras snapping away and taking pictures of public bystanders without their permission.
I am the original poster of this comment. To clarify my previous statment, it is unlawful to record BOTH audio and video at the SAME TIME. You can either record audio OR video, but not BOTH in the same medium. This is well established in case law in many jurisdictions.
Oh please do give us this case law of which you speak, because right now it sounds like you get your legal knowledge from a mixture of urban myth and watching late night cop shows when you were drunk.
This really is getting rediculous.
Is that actually how they teach you to spell ridiculous here? It seems to be used a lot in this form.
It’s British you twit
Um, any Brit that spells ridiculous 'rediculous' is a frickin twit. I have never in all my years known a Brit spell it like that.
I taught secondary school in the UK for three years — lots of Brits spell like that.
I've lived and worked in the UK for almost 50 years, and I have never witnessed this spelling yet – first time I came across it was here in Cayman about 6 months ago, and then subsequently twice here in CNS.
Otterly rediculous. It is definately a problem.
I don't believe you.
So it's all your fault then!
well as their teacher I hope you corrected them.
In what context where they using it? appraisal of your classes?
Yes, dear poster, I corrected them. Why would I not?
Let me correct you now:
Well, as their teacher, I hope you corrected them. In what context were they using this spelling? Was it in appraisal of your classes?
No, it was not in appraisal of my classes. It was in their very own writing. I think some of our British expatriates forget that they tend to be among the better products of the British education system. The full range of ability levels exists in the British classroom, I can assure you.
Well you contributed to bad spelling and grammar for 3yrs because the British do not spell it that way, you do. Can you give us some more examples where you claim a word is spelt a certain way?
Whoever taught you and gave you a teaching certificate must be mortified.
I am not the original poster. I am merely pointing out that Britain has its share of illiterate people, as does every country on earth.
Dear poster, I am fully aware that the word is not meant to be spelled that way. The unfortunate truth is, however, that many British people do, in fact, make egregious spelling errors — as does some portion of the population in every country around the world. Admittedly, those who do are unlikely to be employed as accountants and lawyers in the Cayman Islands…
Adn you think all the Brits in Cayman are accountants and lawyers?
Who said "all"?
Dyslexic Brits perhaps.
Do you know what dyslexia is?
These were British schoolchildren, aged 11 – 16. I taught able and less able pupils; the writing of the less able was nearly impossible to read because their "creative" spelling did not in the slightest resemble standard English forms. Blame John Major if you like.
Bludie ell…
It is not "British". It is bad spelling.
And by the way, dear chap, we tend to put full stops at the end of sentences on both sides of the Atlantic.
“form”, or forum?
Don't these cash places have a buzz in system? Hope they were not just expecting the CCTV to protect the. Every small business in Cayman should have a buzz in security or a security guard stationed at the door. Don't make robberies easier for the robbers to jump in and jump out. Were there any CCTV fottage of the outside of the place? Like what getaway vehicle or transportation?
Did you even READ the article???