Armed Robbers Attack Several Paynesville Communities

Resurgence in armed robbery at a high increase has created fears and trauma in many residents of Paynesville City, outside Monrovia.

After terrorizing and victimizing residents of the Kebba Community in the Township Barnersville, outside Monrovia a few weeks ago, more than 50-armed robbers struck various communities in Paynesville early Monday morning, April 4, 2016.

The armed robbers – armed cutlasses, guns and other weapons, attacked several homes in the Police Academy Community, Voker Mission, the Weaver Street Community, as well as the 12-Houses Community, among others, making away with cash and other valuable items and afflicting wounds of their victims.

In one of the neighborhoods of the Weaver Street Community, a resident and Executive Director of a local Non-governmental organization, Mr. Joseph D. Howard, was shot in his left arms, while protecting his young family during the attack on his residence.

Efforts by community residents to seek the intervention of the Liberia National Police failure. Community mobilization, to a greater extent, coupled with the arrival of a small contingent of the Armed Forces of Liberia helped in beating back the armed robbers, who fled across the swamp towards the Sain Town Community near ELWA Junction and the J.C.N. Howard Cemetery in Voker Mission in Paynesville.

The inability of the police, through its Rapid Response Unit, may have been to the lack of logistics. But community residents of the Weaver Street Community around the Paynesville City Hall have vowed to resist any future attempts by criminals, including armed robbers to attack or invade the community.

-Edited by George Barpeen