Gun-toting Sharjah bank robbers find cool hideout: Balcony AC unit

Two jobless Iranians, who shot a shop owner and attempted to steal Dh165,000 are now standing trial at the Dubai Criminal Court.

The duo who was closely watching the co-partner of a shop walk back from the bank with an envelope of cash, followed him inside the shop.

As the victim was busy attending to a customer, they waited for a chance to pounce on him.

They first asked him to hand over the cash and later shot him. However, they fled the scene when the worker at the shop came to the rescue of his employer.

The CCTV images at the shop helped cops nab them. Interestingly, when cops raided their residence in Sharjah, one of the suspects was found hiding on the AC unit in the balcony put up a fight before being arrested. He took out his gun and threatened to fire at the cops, when officials shot at his leg and nabbed him.

Prosecutor Yousef Hussain asked the court to implement stiff penalty against the accused.

The 21-year-old victim HFK, who survived the fatal shot, testified: “I returned from the bank holding the amount in an envelope which I placed in the accounting drawer.

"Two minutes later, two men entered the shop and one of them started checking some of the building materials and asked for a specific piece that was stored in the mezzanine floor.

"The worker went upstairs to bring the stuff. He got down in less than a minute. The ‘customer’ asked for another piece so the worker went up again. I asked him to be quick as we shall close for lunch break.

"That’s when one of the men surprised me by pulling a gun and asking me to hand over the envelope He threatened to kill me. I thought that it was a toy gun and so tried to move, and he shot me in my chest. Hearing me scream, the worker came down and the two ran away.”

The worker, Mustafa, 29, Indian, also repeated the same testimony, and added, “I called the police and the ambulance who arrived shortly.”

CCTV images helped capture the two suspects.

On June 21, at 1am police raided the accommodation of the first accused in a building at Al Musalla area in Sharjah.

“All lights and ACs were switched off, searching the flat, we could not find him. Later we found him hiding in the balcony on top of an AC unit.

Asking him to come down, he refused and instead moved his hand as if wanting to pulled his gun. However, a policeman was faster and shot at his leg. Meanwhile, the other accused was arrested by another squad,” testified Second Lieutenant Adel Ali.

AAB, 28, and QHM, 25, have confessed to committing the crime. They are accused of murder and theft attempts.

AAB is also accused of illegally possessing a gun and five bullets.

Follow Emirates 24|7 on Google News.