6 Apprehended after “brazen” South Rivers incident

Assistant Commissioner of Police, Trevor Bailey (left) and an individual being apprehended by police in South Rivers.

By Admin. Updated 7:16 p.m., Wednesday, July 17, 2024, Atlantic Standard Time (GMT-4).

Police say six people – four males and two females are assisting them with investigations in connection with a robbery of a credit union in South Rivers.

The incident occurred just after 3:00 p.m. on July 16 at the General Employees Cooperative Credit Union Branch in South Rivers.

In a press conference today (July 17), Assistant Commissioner of Police, Trevor Bailey said:

“I want to take this opportunity while I am here to make reference to and thank the people of South Rivers who assisted the police tremendously yesterday (July 16) in what can only be termed as a very brazen attempt to conduct a robbery on the GECCU credit union facility located in South Rivers”.

“Yesterday, persons who were armed with firearms opened fire on the police who were in the immediate vicinity of the credit union. Police returned some fire and with the assistance of the community, six persons are in custody – four (4) males and (2) females assisting the police with that investigation”.

“And again, I cannot over emphasize the tremendous support that the community working alongside law enforcement would have done yesterday in preventing persons, who were so brazen during high daytime, preventing them from getting away with and moving off with properties that does not belong to them,” Mr. Bailey said.

Mr. Bailey said Police were fired at. Luckily there were no injuries to police or civilians, ASP Bailey said. He said, however, that some of the perpetrators sustained injuries during their apprehension, and those who sustained injuries were taken to the different medical facilities to receive medical attention.

He said the perpetrators are from various communities including in Central Kingstown, South Leeward, and Central Leeward.

The development came just over two months after the Teacher’s Cooperative Credit Union branch in the Central Leeward town of Barrouallie was robbed during business hours on May 10.

Police said it is too early to say if there is a connection between the two incidents, but they are working with several theories.

ASP Bailey reinforced the appreciation of the police towards the community of South Rivers and urged other communities to share information.

“It only goes to show that when the community work with law enforcement, their friend, the police, and we are the friends of the community that coupled together, we can achieve a lot of things, and I want to urge other communities who know of criminal activities that [are] taking place to continue to embrace law enforcement”.

“Continue to embrace the local police. Share the information with your police. If you share the information, then we have a duty to act on that information. We will act and we will achieve together a lot of things ,” he added.