telephoned the police, who came about 30 minutes later.

-- wife critically wounded
-- reporters likely to be charged with `contaminating’ crime scene
`…the wall divider fall down and they started screaming, and I ran under the bed’ – Aruna Appanna
A TEENAGER hid under a bed as bandits launched a deadly attack on her parents at their Non Pariel, East Coast Demerara home early yesterday morning.

Her father, 45-year-old Davechand Appanna, was stabbed several times about the body and died in the house, and her mother Hemrajie, 42, was left unconscious from a fractured skull and stab wounds.

The mother was still critical in hospital up to late yesterday.

Aruna said she awoke at about 02:00 hrs to her parents’ screams and immediately hid under the bed.

She said that from her hiding place, she saw only the men's feet as they moved through the house, using indecent language and demanding cash and jewellery.

"Two of them came in cursing up and asking for the jewellery, but my mother told them that we did not have any, since the bandits had taken all when we got robbed before", she related.

It was the fifth time that the family had been robbed since 2001, but the first anyone was killed.

She said that from her hiding place she heard only screams.

Aruna said she last heard her mother pleading with the men to take the money and leave before she let out one final scream and was silent.

She was later found unconscious, slumped on the kitchen floor, bleeding from a fractured skull which she sustained after the men threw a glass table at her.

The bandits dragged Davechand into the family shop clad only in his underwear and he was stabbed 14 times, seven in his back, two to his face and five to his sides, relatives said.

He was stabbed with a knife found in the shop after the gun that the bandits were carrying apparently malfunctioned.

Police said a knife was left in his back and he died in the grocery.

Police said they recovered three live bullets at the scene.

Aruna said the ordeal lasted some 10-15 minutes.

The men then jumped over the fence and fled the area on foot.

She said that after the men left, she ventured downstairs and telephoned the police, who came about 30 minutes later.

The mother was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation by relatives and immediately underwent surgery.

A `for sale’ sign had been put up on the house.

Appanna, the owner of two Route 44 mini buses, BGG 6232 and BGG 9702, had one other child, 22-year-old Khemraj.

Crime Chief Henry Greene visited the scene yesterday morning.

Police said two bandits broke into the two-storey house at Lot 280 Section 'B' Non Pariel at around 02:00 hrs and the noise woke up Davechand.

He confronted two men, one armed with a knife and the other with a gun, as he left his bedroom, police said.

One of the attackers grabbed Davechand while the other pulled his wife from the bedroom, police reported.

They said that during this time there was a scuffle between the father and the bandits and the mother was chopped on the head and her left wrist was partly severed.

According to the police, the intruders took Davechand downstairs where he apparently attempted to fight them off and was stabbed several times.

The two bandits escaped with $100,000 in cash, police said.

They said three other armed bandits were seen on the road but no shots were fired during the attack.

Police said they found two bloodstained cutlasses, a broken knife and a pair of scissors at the scene. Relatives said these belonged to the family.

Police said that while the Police Crime Scenes Unit was at work, two reporters allegedly breached the police barrier and “entered the home contaminating the scene with their footprints which has hindered the unit from properly completing its gathering of evidence.”

“This breach is under investigation and charges may result shortly”, police said in a press release.

Monday, August 18,  2003