Twenty visiting doctors on a medical mission from the US were robbed by two men on motorbikes at the corner of Maximo Gomez and Bolivar avenues in Santo Domingo yesterday, Tuesday 22 January, as reported in Listin Diario.
The doctors, who are in the country to provide dental work for poor patients, via the office of the National District Senator, Reinaldo Pared Perez, had left their hotel for a stroll at around 9pm. When the first group was walking near the corner with Maximo Gomez avenue, one of the assailants got off his bike, pistol in hand and told them to hand over all they had.
One of the doctors in the first group, Ken Dibble from the University of Utah G3 Medical Foundation, said that they put a gun to his head and told him to hand over his watch, iPad, credit cards, money and rings and that he said he had none of those, but another member of the group had to hand over a US$3,000 camera and his backpack.
He said that one member of his group screamed and a security officer appeared, and the men fled, but then they saw the other group and robbed them too.
Dibble said that they had reported the incident to the National Police, but pointed out that they were sticking to the rules in that they were not out alone, they were in a group, and it wasn’t very late, only 9pm. He regretted the incident as they had been coming to the country for ten years and nothing like that had ever happened before. They were just here to give humanitarian aid. He finished by saying events like this happened everywhere, including in New York.