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The Doony’s superstore on Albert Street was robbed at gunpoint today. At 1:30, when a gunman wearing no mask jumped off his bike, stormed into the store, and fled a few minutes later with about $5,000. Considering Doony’s central location and the time of the day - it’s as brazen as robberies can get and we were on the scene minutes after it happened.

Keith Swift Reporting,
The robber walked into Doony’s at about 1:30 and immediately placed a gun at the neck of security guard Elton Jex. He forced Jex over to the desk where Manisha Sadarangani was standing.

Manisha Sadarangani, Robbery Victim
“He parked his bike outside the store and the security opened the door to tell him he cannot leave his bike there and that’s from when he pointed the gun at the security and escorted him towards my desk. He just said, ‘give me everything – just give me everything now.’ That’s all he said and I said don’t shoot, I will give you what you want, it’s okay and I took out the money and I gave it to him, whatever I had and he pointed the gun towards me and he said give me all and I said this is all, I don’t have anymore, please don’t shoot and he walked out.”

Marion Ali, News 5
“How many customers would you say were in the store at the time?

Manisha Sadarangani,
“One customer in the store that got robbed out front because he took everything that she had also.”

The gunman wore no mask – only a hat. Sadarangani says he didn’t look suspicious but was nervous.

Manisha Sadarangani,
“They were very nervous and the guy’s hands were trembling and he would have shot if anybody would have panicked or made any noise or we would have resisted, he would have definitely shot because he was nervous himself.”

Keith Swift,
What did this man look like?

Manisha Sadarangani,
“It is the first time I have seen him. He had on a white hat, a red shirt, and I could not see the rest.”

Terry Gordon, Love FM
“You mentioned something about the gun and they being so nervous and the gun nearly going off.”

Manisha Sadarangani,
“I heard the gun crank so I knew he was about to shoot, he would have shot if we probably had resisted in anyway.”

And that made for some tense seconds for Manisha.

Manisha Sadarangani,
“It was very scary. I didn’t know if the guy was going to shoot or what was going to happen. Someone knowing they might lose their life in the next minute, of course it is scary definitely.”

Doony’s was robbed in the middle of the day and in the middle of downtown Belize City. It can’t get any worse than that but after today, some merchants here on Albert Street fear that it will.”

Nicole Lovell, HL’s Burger
“It was big during the day, I can’t believe it was big during the day they are holding up people. They noticed it is only two young ladies working here and if they could hold up big Doony’s during the day and it is more than two persons working there, imagine two young ladies working here by themselves.”

Shyam Chainann, Storeowner
“This shouldn’t happen and I was right there and I couldn’t noticed that myself. I am shocked and that’s why I asked you what’s happening.”

Keith Swift,
Does this also make you feel vulnerable?

Shyam Chainann,
“Yes. I don’t open the shop at night. I am scared. Any kind of businessman has to be scared. That is ridiculous. Trust me, that is ridiculous.”

Keith Swift,
What do you want done?

Shyam Chainann,
“They have to have police security or something over this side on this street because we hardly see any patrol over here. We don’t have any protection this side of the street.”

The security guard at Doony’s was armed.

Elton Jex, Security Guard
“He held me in the back of my shirt, put the gun to my neck, and told me to just continue walk and I walked to the owner’s desk. He passed the first cashier and I walked to the owner’s desk and that’s where he told me still not to move. He moved the gun from my neck and pointed it at the owner and told her to give him all the money she had. He gave him all the money she had and apparently se wasn’t satisfied and she told him he wanted all the money. She said that’s all I have, I have no more.

He didn’t turn around, he walked back way. Back way so that I didn’t try to do anything funny and he walked back way and pointed the gun at me and told me don’t move. That’s when he hollered after some other guy, I don’t know who the other guy is, who apparently came with him and told the other guy to get the money and mek wi roll and that was it.

For me I was so shocked because this is the first time something like that happened to me. For ten years I’ve been doing security and this is the first time this happened to me. So right now I am contemplating whether I will continue to do security or not. But I am still in a shock because for a moment I thought I was going to get shoot because automatically when the guy had the gun on my neck, I remember one of our former colleague who got shot at Twins Supermarket and I remember his situation whereby he was struggling with the guy and so he got shot. That is one of the reasons why I didn’t even think about trying to struggle with the guy. I followed his instructions and followed what he said to do and that is how everything went down.”

Jacqueline Godwin,
Because if you had resisted, if you did not follow his instruction, you believed he would have fired his gun?

Elton Jex,
“He would have fired his weapon and that’s why I did not panic because in a panic situation that’s what you would have done so despite the fact that I was shocked, I tried to follow his instructions and do everything he said to do because I really didn’t want to get hurt.”

Manisha Sadagarani says Doony’s will review its security arrangement. Reporting for 7NEWS, Keith Swift.

The security guard Elton Jex, who you just heard from, stressed that he did not recognize the robber. We should note that while the robber may have wanted money from Western Union, he never actually reached the western union desk. He went as far as the manager’s desk, took a few thousand dollars from her, raided the store’s cash register, and then fled. Again, a number of customers were in the store and we can confirm that one was robbed of her cell phone and then shoved on the ground.

Police have detained a couple persons from the area as part of investigations. As we said, the security guard was armed but because he was accosted – he had no time to use it. Doony’s has security cameras but from what we saw, they weren’t hooked up.