Gunmen
terrorise, rob
Non Pariel families
Around
12 men carried out assault - Widower
set on fire at wife's wake
Thursday
August 29, 2002
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.
The
Seeraj's home was attacked fourth by the band
of bandits early yesterday morning.
The wake house: The Rasheeds' home
where the wake was being held early yesterday
morning when a band of around 12 bandits
descended on Non Pariel Housing Scheme, East
Coast Demerara and set the grieving widower
ablaze.
(Clairmonte
Marcus photo)
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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.
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