Just over one year ago, on the night of January 22, Ketley Street, Charlestown was besieged by a group of gunmen who unleashed terror and violence leaving two men dead and seriously injuring eight others.
One of the dead men, businessman and owner of Steven's Beer Garden and Cheap Shop, Leonard Parjohn, was shot in the head as his horrified wife looked on helplessly. Moments before Parjohn was killed, his wife had pushed their four young children under the bar counter after one of the gunmen threatened to shoot their 4-year-old daughter Angelena if Parjohn did not cooperate.
About 48 hours later, another family was plunged into mourning after 30-year-old Sharon Reece, a mother of four who was injured by a stray bullet, succumbed in the Intensive Care Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Several months later, the memories of that fateful night and the fear it bred still lingers in the minds of Reece's children, her reputed husband and her mother as well as Parjohn's neighbour, Mahendra Jagbandhan, also a businessman and owner of Pet Boy's Beer Garden and Pools Bar.
At Reece's home last Thursday, a pall of sadness hung over her family as they prepared to deal with the anniversary of her unfortunate passing.
The dead woman's mother, Roxanne Jegroo, told Stabroek News, that as the time neared she began to feel overwhelmed by a feeling of despondency.
"I could barely get out of my bed. Is the children I hurt for the most because there is [no one] like a mother no matter what. Sherry [another name by which Reece was known] used to tek good care of them children, she always used to keep up they birthday and so even if she ain't had much money," Jegroo recalled sadly.
She said of Reece's children, the one most affected by the tragedy is her eldest son Simeon who still cries uncontrollably at times.
"He does cry all the time when[ever] he remember his mother, and he was the one who call me when the mother get shoot."
The children, according to Jegroo, are now being taken care of by herself, another daughter, a son and their father John Vaughn who was with Reece when she was wounded a few steps into the alleyway that leads into the yard where she had lived.
Reece's grieving mother said she lives in Middle Road, La Penitence, and remembered that following her grandson's phone call, she had headed to the hospital where Reece had undergone emergency surgery.
"I did had some hope because she didn't die till the Saturday and [during the time] she had briefly regained consciousness...she was talking a lil' bit."
But Reece did not survive her injury and now her bereaved family is still trying to come to grips with the shock of losing her.
Although in recent months, attacks of this nature have dropped dramatically and the loss of life declined, many families are still dealing with grief and deaths from similar circumstances, Jegroo observed.
She said at present, the children's most urgent need is a proper home in which to live. Jegroo showed this newspaper their present abode which is a very old building that needs to be rebuilt completely if it is to become comfortable.
Jagbandhan's business/home is located a short distance from the home occupied by Reece's children.
Everything appears normal from outside but a tour of the interior where several bullet holes are clearly visible bears testimony to the gruesome events of that terrible night.
In a desperate bid to escape the bandits' bullets, Jagbandhan's stepdaughter, Shelly Lalchand, sustained fractures to both feet when she jumped from the upper flat of their home to a verandah on the second storey.
Lalchand had then crawled from there until she got to the ground and made it over to a neighbour's house. It was not until the following day that she became aware of her injuries after she was unable to move her badly swollen feet.
Jagbandhan's brother, Ghansham, took a bullet to the groin during the onslaught and like Reece, underwent emergency surgery. He survived.
During the first four to five months following the assault, the family talked about little else and it was a while before some semblance of normalcy returned to their lives, Jagbandhan said.
Recalling the terrible events of that night, Jagbandhan said he had been standing behind the bar in his shop when a black car drove up and about six men began firing at his premises and the Parjohn's next door.
On realising they were being robbed by gunmen, Jagbandhan said, he had called upstairs telling his family, "...y'all run...bandits!"
The frightened businessman immediately went upstairs and took off the main switch controlling the electricity to his home in the desperate hope that the resulting darkness would offer some degree of protection.
"My wife, [Maureen Paul] run and hide in de bedroom, my stepdaughter jump through the window and me run in another bedroom and lie down under the bed."
The man said he had locked the bedroom door on the inside and neither he nor his wife ventured outside despite repeated demands by the bandits that they come out as they searched for him and his family in the dark.
Jagbandhan recalled he had heard incessant gunfire coming from the direction of his bar and at the Parjohn's.
"Then [the bandits] give up and return downstairs and so come I alive right now."
Jagbandhan said the policeman, Godfrey Layne, who had been shot in the back while in his shop had been about to make a purchase when the gunmen arrived.
The shooting ceased eventually and a shaken Jagbandhan cautiously left his hiding spot and ventured onto the verandah where he noticed a huge crowd on the street.
"I make further checks and see plenty police block up the street and so I know that something very serious happen."
Jagbandhan then went downstairs where he saw blood spattered on the walls and in pools behind the bar where his brother had been shot.
Someone then informed him of what had happened to his brother, who had already been rushed to the hospital with other persons, and he joined a taxi and headed to the GPHC where he subsequently learned of Parjohn's demise.
The Parjohn family migrated to the United States later that month.
Jagbandhan responded in the affirmative when asked whether he still feels fearful after the attack and told this newspaper, he becomes apprehensive especially at night and whenever he notices a strange car.
"I will never ever forget [that night]. I'm very much traumatised unto now."
But the businessman continues to serve his patrons. He said it was the second time he had been attacked by gun-toting bandits, the first being in 1998. On that occasion, he had been robbed of about $200,000 in cash.
The other man who died that night was 22-year-old Carlton Norton who had reportedly gone into Humphrey's Bakery and had been shot while attempting to retreat from the bandits.
The police had made a futile attempt to catch up with the gunmen, and the trail now seems to have gone cold.