Tuesday, October 21 2008

Gained entry by removing several window panes

The other occupants of the house were asleep when the robbers gained entry by removing several window panes and opening the front door.

Basmattie and her teenaged daughter, Shivanie Rampersaud, who survived the robbery yesterday, surrounded by neighbours.

Basmattie Rampersaud, grieving over the loss, told the Guyana Chronicle she was awakened by the muffled screams of her mother in another bedroom, about midnight Sunday.

“I got up to investigate and I saw three men with my mother on the bed. She was already bound and gagged and, when they saw me, they hauled me into the bedroom and tied me up and threw me to the floor,” the survivor recalled in tears.

She said the attackers, armed with knives and a handgun, ordered her not to look at their faces and also tied up her daughter.

She lamented that her mother was not sick and was always busy around the house doing some chore.

“They just took her life like that,” Basmattie mourned.

She said the assailants stole beers, cake, cigarettes and two cell phones, too, from their small grocery.

According to her, one of the bandits claimed he did not want to cooperate with the others in the killing.

The victim was bound with a piece of the material used to package cement and duct taped her mouth and nose, so she could not breathe.

“After they threatened to rape my daughter, I told them where to find everything I had but they wanted more and I begged them to leave us, as that was all we had,” Basmattie said.

The traumatised teen, Shivanie confirmed that she was ordered not to look at the perpetrators and listened silently while her mother pleaded with the men not to hurt them.

The teenager said, when she was thrown to the floor, she hit herself and suffered a gash on her chin but was forced to remain lying beside her mother while the men demanded their booty.

The girl said the bandits spent about an hour in their house while the next door neighbour was having drinks and, as usual, playing music loudly.

“We screamed but no one heard us because of the loud music,” she related, adding that they finally got to realise her grandmother was dead and alerted neighbours after untying themselves.

She said, after the robbery, the bandits telephoned for a car to transport them and one robber told her: “We are leaving ‘lil’ girl. Take care.”

Shivanie remembered that, earlier that night, she had seen a man standing outside their house but did not bother to tell her mother.