Shooting victim succumbs to injury days after robbery

Shopkeeper Theresa Creese says that having one of her best friends murdered at her business place for no reason has struck her a hard blow, but she will not make what happened close down her business.

Creese’s shop, open since 1971, was robbed on Friday, September 20 at around 8.45 pm. Her friend Cauldric George was shot during the robbery and died three days later while a patient at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH).

“I would not close for that, I am determined, this is my life…crime really out of control and I think the only solution is hanging because them guys go to jail for a crime, come back out and do the same crime, so I think that is the only solution,” said the Prospect resident.

Explaining what happened, Creese said she was sitting at the door of the shop while another friend and customer of hers, Ismael Daniel was standing on the verandah; George was sitting at the counter next to a window.

Creese said she saw a shadow and looked through the shop’s entrance and found herself staring down the barrel of a gun.

“…the gun point to my forehead and the guy said ‘what the f… you looking at? Sit yo ass down and put yo hands on yo head, give me all the money you have’ so I emptied my pockets,” Creese recalled.

She said she threw the contents of her pocket on the floor after which one of the two robbers pulled her gold chain from her neck and then jumped onto the counter of the shop.

“Cauldric was sitting and he just leaned over and the robber shot him, the tall one,” Creese told SEARCHLIGHT.

She said when George fell to the ground, the other robber grabbed Daniel behind his neck and pushed him into the shop and onto the floor and placed his foot on his back, pinning Daniel to the floor.

“Ismael (Daniel) try to raise up and he stab him with a scissors in his back and when he try to raise up again, he pelt another stab and I said Ismael no, and he relax,” said Creese.
She said the robber who was on the shop’s counter jumped from the counter to the deep freeze and starting grabbing drinks from the shelf.

He then came off the deep freeze and grabbed a case of Guinness from under the counter.

“Then my grandson came out in his towel and the robber said ‘where the f… you going? Go down on you knee and put you two hands on you head,” recalled Creese who added that the robber took a purse and then both men fled the scene towards the Brighton area.

She said someone later told her a vehicle was waiting for the robbers in the road.

“This is the first time I experience this. It is frightening, so I will close if I do not have a crowd,” Creese said while noting that one of the men was wearing a mask while the other covered the lower half of his face with a bandana and was also wearing a hat.

She noted that George was like a son to her and she would cook for him almost every day as he would help her do chores and run errands.

“He used to do anything for me. He was a very nice person,” Creese said of the 58-year-old labourer.

The robbers are said to have made off with about EC$600 in cash, Creese’s gold necklace, three bottles of Campari, a few bottles of Sparrow’s rum, two Pure Heaven wines, two Frontera wines and a case of Guinness.
Police are investigating.