MONTEGO BAY, Jamaica — Three masked gunmen pulled off a daring daylight robbery of an armoured vehicle in a busy Montego Bay shopping plaza yesterday morning.
But a gunfight between the bandits and guards employed to Hawkeye Security Limited resulted in two of the robbers and a Hawkeye security guard being shot.
Last night, as police continued their investigation and search for the gunmen, the security guard, who was shot in his left arm, was being treated at hospital.
“He should be okay; it is not a life-threatening injury,” a spokesman at Hawkeye told the Jamaica Observer. People claiming to have witnessed the robbery said that about 10 a.m. the Hawkeye employees were in the process of delivering cash to the Sagicor Bank in the Fairview Shopping Centre when they were ambushed by the three masked gunmen wearing ballistic vests and who arrived at the plaza in a Toyota Townace van which had no registration plates.
“After the Hawkeye armoured vehicle drove up, the Townace van came up behind it. Three men with guns came out of the van, while another remained inside.
Two of the gunmen grabbed two bags from the Hawkeye men and started to run towards the van, then the shootout started,” a man who said he was an eyewitness told the Observer. He added that during the shootout one of the bags of money fell before the gunmen escaped.
That bag was later recovered by the police, the Observer was told. It was not immediately clear how much money the robbers escaped with.
The Townace was later reportedly seen in the John’s Hall area of St James, about five miles from where the robbery took place.
Member of Parliament for West Central St James Sharon Folkes Abrahams, who visited the shopping centre after the incident, called for the deployment of more police in the area.
“I am very disturbed at the incident and I am calling on the police to bring the perpetrators to justice,” she said.
“We cannot have crime, particularly in this busy season, and so the police need to put more boots on the ground, especially during this Christmas season.” (Jamaica Observer)
