Five houses attacked

Immediately after the attack at Rasheed's house, the band moved around the corner and struck at five other homes, all in proximity to each other. The men first went to Lot 415, where a man, identified only as Patrick, was staying in a new house. However, after kicking the door several times, the gunmen abandoned the idea for a more modest dwelling opposite.

From the vantage point of his upper window, the caretaker witnessed the other attacks.

"Around 25 [minutes] to three, I hear a kicking on this door. The grillwork on the inside of the door was keeping noise and that was what wake me up. When I wake up, I come by this window and I look through. I see six men in the yard...with guns. They try fo kick this door open for the second time and the door ain't opening and they decide fuh go way. They make about six kicks on this door in about 15 seconds time. I call the police, but nah get through to Vigilance [Police Station]. This is the first house they come to and they couldn't get in. [Then] they went and put the gun pon that lady [Petrine Lamazon], through the window and from there to the flat house and then come back to the two neighbours next side here."

The 34-year-old Lamazon, who resides at Lot 486, said she was awakened at about 2:45 am by a noise. When she looked out her bedroom window, about eight men had already swarmed her yard.

"I was standing by my window and one come up and holler, 'Soldier, don't move!' I did not move and then he say leh somebody open the front door," the woman stated.

Her two daughters - ages 16 and 12 years - along with her eight-year-old niece and five-year-old nephew, were also in the house at the time of the attack. Lamazon sent one of her daughters to open the door and that led to an ordeal that lasted for about 15 minutes.

"They entered, ransacked the place, carry the cell phone, the CD player, boots, haversack and a bag that had money in it. They run through the drawer and carry $3,000 I had in there," the woman said.

Only five men entered her home. Lamazon said one of them placed a shotgun to her head, while a second, tried to rape her.

"They also tried to rape the two girls. They ask them which one will volunteer? He asked, 'Which one of you all will volunteer fo give me li'l sex?'" However, the woman said, the girls were not sexually abused.

"My niece and nephew come yesterday (Tuesday) to spend a couple of days and that is what they end up seeing. The lil boy see when the men go in the fridge and he see when they pull me big daughter by she ponytail and drag she...knock she in she head with the gun. All of that them two lil children see," Lamazon explained.

A couple went down on their knees and prayed

Next to be attacked was Seeraj's home. The man said he, his wife and three children - ages seven, five and two years - were asleep, when he heard a sound.

"I hear, 'Badam!' and me and meh wife get up [but] by the time you blink yuh eye, they [the bandits] knock out the bedroom window and get in to we."

When the couple realised they were being attacked, they got to their knees and started praying. As the children cried hysterically, Seeraj's wife, Shoba, prayed that the bandits would spare her husband's life.

"Well, I believe God does move mountains, so I start praying in front of them and the wife praying, 'Oh Lord, please save my husband. My husband is the breadwinner, don't [let them] shoot him.'"

About five bandits had entered Seeraj's home and placed him to lie face down on the floor.

"They holding she [Shoba] by she hair and pulling she, saying, 'Give me all de money!' I lost $4,000. That was all I had on me. They take my hammer and come and knock these people over here [the Monirams]," Seeraj said. He was also robbed of a video cassette recorder and an electric shaver.

Seeraj said the bandits stayed in his house for about 20 minutes, during which time, they ransacked the place thoroughly. He was, nonetheless, high in praise of his God.

"God is good, I tell you. God moves mountains. They [the bandits] listened to the word and didn't do anybody nothing. They say, 'Where the gold? I seh, 'Thief man thief all my gold already.'"

A rural constable was beaten with a hammer

While the men were breaking into Seeraj's home, rural constable Tekchan Muniram, watched in horror from his home. A few minutes later, he found himself being the fifth target. When the gunmen started breaking his fence, Muniram's first thought was that he was a dead man.

Within seconds, the band of men was in his yard, smashing the louvre panes of his ground flat kitchen. Realising that no one occupied the downstairs room, the bandits climbed the stairs and crashed the windows, demanding entry. All the while, Muniram said, he was contemplating jumping from the upper flat, but his home was surrounded.

"Me study foh jump through [the window]," the man recalled. At the time, he heard sounds from the galvanised roofing over his steps and realised that one of the bandits had climbed on to the roof. Another gunman was kicking furiously at the front door, simultaneously crashing the windows near the steps.

Muniram said he only heeded their order to open the door after the men threatened to open fire on the wooden house. Only he and his wife, 31-year-old Ramona Ramkissoon, were home at the time. Fortunately, the couple's two young daughters were at their grandmother's.

As he choked with unshed tears, Muniram told Stabroek News that the men placed him to lie on his stomach and proceeded to beat him.

"One [of the bandits] stand up on meh neck and a next one tek a hammer and lash meh in meh head, meh hand," the man recalled. The other attackers were, at the time, demanding money and gold from his wife.

During the half hour ordeal, the bandits slashed the leatherette of the couple's suite of chairs and ransacked the entire house. They carted off about $300,000 worth of gold jewellery, Ramona told this newspaper. She said the men also raided her refrigerator.

The couple, too, complained of calling the Police at Vigilance Station and not getting any response until about 4 am.

The last house to be attacked during the ordeal was that of Roxanne Giddings at Lot 414.

She told this newspaper that at about 3:10 am, she awoke to the sound of crashing glass at Muniram's house next door. In less than a minute, her house, too, was under attack.

"They broke this window (to the front of the house) and there was a man there with guns and he said, 'Open de f...ing door!' I [told him] to hold on, that I coming and open the door," the woman recalled.

As the gunmen entered, they repeatedly asked for money. "He [one of the bandits] say, 'Whey yuh money deh, yuh got a business, whey yuh money deh?'" The business the gunman was referring to, was Giddings' humble-looking snackette to the front of her yard.

"They put meh two sons to lie on the floor and meh daughter and they came in my room to me."

Meanwhile, Giddings recalled seeing about 12 men during the early morning attack at Non Pariel Housing Scheme. In the end, she lost $3,000, a tape recorder and a pair of 'Fubu' sneakers.

"Some were keeping guard on the road, while others come in the houses. Like two houses they were working at a time - some over there (at Muniram's house) and some over here. I ain't really know what go on," the woman stated forlornly. (Back to top)