Inquiries Into Armed Robbery at Washington Mall Gold Standard Store [Updated]

Wed, 2020-01-29

Detective Superintendent Nicholas Pedro, Officer in Charge, Crime Division – At about 9:30am this morning, two men on a motorcycle rode into the walkway of Washington Mall from the Church Street entrance.

The cycle travelled south along the pedestrian walkway on the second level of the Mall, and parked inside of the mall just after entering the double sliding doors. The two suspects dismounted the cycle and both of them ran along the second level of the mall and into the Gold Standard premises.

Suspect 1 was carrying what appeared to be a firearm. Suspect 2 then proceeded to break the large display cabinet with a tool that he was carrying in his hand, whilst Suspect 1 emptied another display cabinet. Both suspects placed as many items as they could into bags they were carrying. They then exited Gold Standard, running back to the parked motorcycle. The motorcycle then travelled north on the pedestrian walkway on the second level of the mall, turned right onto Church Street and made good their escape with a quantity of jewellery that was stolen from the premises.

We recognise that this incident will likely prompt fear in law abiding members of the public who either witnessed this incident first hand, or learned of this brazen act by other means.

I am here to reassure you that the Bermuda Police Service is taking this matter extremely seriously, and will be committing significant resources into tracking down, and bringing these offenders to justice.

Whilst Bermuda has not been immune to acts of violence or use of firearms, this robbery strikes at our sense of safety as law abiding citizens go about their daily business.

This type of criminality cannot be allowed to go undetected.

We have resourced an investigative team and other measures to proactively target, investigate, and prosecute those responsible.

However, we cannot do this alone. As I have said on many occasions – if you know something, say something. The offenders on this motorcycle are known to someone – whether it’s your son, daughter, nephew, niece, boyfriend or girlfriend.

Members of the community should be outraged.

Help us to make our island safer, and call the investigative team.

In the meantime, we will be directing our teams to vary their patrols to take into account the retail areas of Hamilton, but still keeping a vigilant watch on those areas traditionally blighted with gang tensions & violence.

We will also be utilizing our community uniform teams to provide visible reassurance following this crime.

Detective Inspector Kenten Trott is leading on the investigation & I urge anyone that can assist to come forward to talk with him, a member of the Serious Crime team, or call Crime Stoppers on 800-8477.

Update: Thursday, January 30th: Detective Superintendent Nicholas Pedro, Crime Division – Three men were taken into custody overnight from a residence in Warwick in relation to the armed robbery at Gold Standard in the Washington Mall.

The men, aged between 19 & 24 years old, remain in custody while detectives continue their investigations. They have been arrested on suspicion of robbery.

We continue to ask the public for their help in providing any information they may have, or if they witnessed the event. Please do not assume because people are in custody that the police do not need the public input.

We are also in possession of evidence from the scene and continue to analyse this.

We continue to review imagery of the suspects, and will not be releasing any footage to the public at this time.

We are grateful for the continued support, but ask that anyone with information please contact the Serious Crime Unit on 247-1739, Detective Inspector Kenten Trott on 717-2345, e-mail ktrott1@bps.bm or call the main police telephone number 295-0011.

Alternatively, anonymous tips can be sent via the independent and confidential Crime Stoppers hotline 800-8477 or www.crimestoppers.bm.