Thursday August 29, 2002

Gunmen terrorise, rob Non Pariel families
Around 12 men carried out assault - Widower set on fire at wife's wake

Terror gripped Section 'B' Non Pariel Housing Scheme early yesterday morning as a band of 12 gunmen went on a crime spree, setting an elderly man on fire and assaulting and robbing numerous residents.
Reports say that the armed, unmasked marauding band of men first descended on the home of Rasheed at about 2:30 am, where there was a wake in session for his wife Amina Baksh-Rasheed who died last Saturday in a road accident.
 

After holding up the mourners, the gunmen then proceeded to douse them with kerosene oil and set them ablaze. Rasheed was badly burnt.
Residents say that he had suffered a stroke some time back. He was rushed to the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation.
One of the mourners told this newspaper yesterday that he and about five other men were sitting under Rasheed's house at about 2 am when the band of gunmen stormed the place.
"Two of us were playing cards. There was a guy who got drunk lying there in a hammock. These guys came in - about eight of them. Two walk up the road and two go [in the opposite direction]. Everybody had a gun - shotguns, .45, six-shooters. They say, 'Nobody don't move!' and they start teking off meh stuff," the young man recalled.
He lost his cellular phone, a gold ring, a watch and $1,000. The gunmen then ordered him and a friend upstairs, where they were put on the ground to lie face down.
"They tell we, 'Put yuh head down!' and they throw kerosene oil. Then they throw a match, but I out it when they throw it [because I told myself] they ain't burning me up, is best they shoot me."
The young man said the men did not bother to set him and his friend ablaze, but kept remarking that he looked like a cop.
During the ordeal, the bandits repeatedly asked for directions to a goldsmith in the area, but both young men denied knowledge and their attackers left.
After the men had gone, the young man told Stabroek News that he went downstairs and found Rasheed already burnt. He helped the old man up, but headed home after other residents took charge.
It seemed that the bandits carted off the widower's television set that was in the house.
"I don't know what else they take. All I know I see a TV and when I get up, the TV wasn't there," the young man said. He said Rasheed was also hit in the head and was bleeding profusely.
"He cuss them [the gunmen] and they lash he in he head with a pistol." The men had apparently smashed the lights to Rasheed's home before proceeding to strip all the mourners of their valuables.
When this newspaper turned up at Rasheed's home yesterday, the door was ajar, but no one was there. A pair of sneakers, a $20 bill and a burnt, red, mesh vest were in the yard by the gate. There were also bloodstains on the concrete.
Rasheed, also called 'Babsie', and his now deceased wife had lived alone at 362 Non Pariel Housing Scheme. The woman died last Saturday after being hit by a motorcycle while returning home from the market. She was to be buried yesterday.

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.

Where were the police?
As some residents of Non Pariel Housing Scheme were being torched, beaten and robbed yesterday morning, other persons in the community tried desperately to reach the police at the Vigilance Station, less than five minutes away.
Reports state that the band of 12 gunmen started the assault on the community at around 2:30 am yesterday and left the area shortly after 3 am. During that time, residents said they repeatedly called for the police, but got no response until an hour after the gunmen left. Residents said the police turned up at around 4 am.
The Police at Vigilance could not be contacted for a comment up to late last night and no press release was issued by Police Headquarters on the matter. The phone at the Vigilance station was constantly engaged.
Since the heinous crime spree that started earlier this year, there have been repeated complaints that the police's response time to crimes is unsatisfactory and that the force inevitably turns up after the bandits have plundered and pillaged. Despite the complaints, the force seems unable to improve its response time. The police have also been targeted by the criminals. Nine policemen have so far been murdered by gunmen.