Doubles vendor injured in crash while chasing bandit

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SASCHA WILSON

Dodging bullets and risking his life, a Tabaquite doubles businessman chased a gunman with his car after the man robbed him and his family.

The drama, which took place Sunday morning, ended when Shafie Abdool, 46, crashed into a wall when he ducked under the steering wheel to shield himself from the bullets.

The young assailant who was shooting and running along the main road at Manuel Junction, Tabaquite, escaped in a white car. Abdool, a father of three, was not seriously injured, but he has been left emotionally fractured.

With his children ages 16, 15, and seven, too traumatized to stay at their home, the family spent Sunday night at a relative’s house. Abdool who also owns a poultry shop at his home sells doubles during the week but on a weekend his wife, Melissa Abdool, 37, and 15-year-old daughter would sell doubles near the Tabaquite Secondary School while he works in the poultry shop with his eldest child.

Admitting that at the time he was enraged and may have knocked down the bandit if he caught him, Abdool said this was not the first time he was robbed.

He recalled that about two years ago he was selling doubles at Princes Town when he was robbed at gunpoint. The bandits stole his money and his van which was never recovered. The couple has been selling doubles near the school for the past year and a half.

Recalling the incident, Abdool said he went to pick up his wife and daughter around 9.30 am. But, just before he got there the assailant who was wearing a surgical mask approached his wife and asked her for a doubles. She told him they were sold out and he walked a short distance away.

“When I was putting the doubles box into the wagon he walked back towards us. He pulled out a gun and crack it and he say ‘give me all the money. I eh making no joke, doh make no scene.’”

Abdool handed him the days sales of $1,500 and he walked off. As he watched the gunman walking in the direction of his home where his other two children were and saw his other daughter crying, Abdool said he just reacted.

“I jump in my car and drive off behind him. He fired two shots behind me and keep on running. When I reach a distance from by me (his house), there was a truck on that side. He run in front of the truck and I pull on his side. I say I was going to bounce him. He point the gun at me and crack it. I drove off and I went to turn to come back. He was still running and he come up at me and point the gun at me. I thought he was going to pull the trigger so I duck under the steering and I lost control and run into the wall. That was the last thing I remember until I was in the ambulance.”

Still experiencing pain on his left side, chest, leg and neck, Abdool said it appears that he received no serious injuries because he was treated and discharged from the hospital. Abdool did not think that his actions were brave or heroic. “When I see my daughter how she start to cry I just build an anger. I just react towards my family. We working so hard. My wife gets up 1 o’clock to fry doubles. We working as hard as we could to mind our family.”

He said the people have to stand up because the police were not doing a good job. Abdool complained that the Brasso Police Station was a stone’s throw away from where he lives yet the police took about an hour to arrive.