At Champ de Mars: A Student Robbed of His Phone Under the Threat of a Syringe

At Champ de Mars: A student was robbed of his phone at syringe point

An incident occurred at Champ de Mars where a 14-year-old boy and his father helped apprehend a man suspected of threatening the boy with a syringe and stealing his phone.

According to the victim's statement, while they were sitting on a concrete bench, an unknown man—approximately 5 feet 5 inches tall, with dark skin, tangled hair, wearing a green cap, a gray t-shirt, and yellow shorts—approached them. In an aggressive tone, he shouted, "Stop making noise, do you not know that people are sleeping here? If someone needs to be beaten, I can do that too!" The man then demanded the student lend him his mobile phone, a gray Huawei Nova Y90 valued at Rs 20,000, under the pretense of making a call. Out of fear, the teenager complied. After attempting to dial several numbers, the suspect headed towards a small restroom. When the boy asked for his phone back, the man became enraged and replied, "Are you accusing me of stealing?" before pulling a syringe from a container and threatening, "I can make you catch HIV!" In panic, the boy fled to the Pope Hennessy police station to report the assault. Accompanied by police officers, he returned to the scene, but the suspect had already disappeared. The father, visibly shaken, said, "My son had just finished his exams on Thursday and wanted to meet his friends. This man attacked them with a syringe. He pointed it at my son, who is traumatized by this incident. Thankfully, he wasn't injured."

"The next day, Saturday, my son and I returned to Champ de Mars to try to find the man," he explained. "We were playing when my son spotted him. I went to find a police officer who was on site. I told him that this man attacked my son. Meanwhile, bystanders also helped to catch the man," the father recounted.

The individual, already known to the police, has been detained and will be brought to court this Monday on a preliminary charge of aggravated robbery.