Minutes after Debbie Barnabas went to investigate a strange noise coming from her front window early yesterday morning, her door was kicked down and two men, one of whom was armed with a shotgun, barged in.
Barnabas and her 15-year-old daughter, Christina, were alone in their Block Y Diamond New Housing Scheme, East Bank Demerara home. The woman’s husband is away working at an interior location.
Police said the incident occurred at about 1am. The men, police reported, broke and entered Barnabas’ home, held her and her daughter at gun point and took away a quantity of jewellery. Christina was hit to the head with the firearm during the robbery.
As the perpetrators exited the building, the two victims raised an alarm and their neighbour Angela Williams, 45, opened her window to check and the armed man discharged rounds in her direction. Several pellets grazed Williams’ neck. The injured females were taken to the Diamond Diagnostic Centre, where they were treated and sent away.
At Diamond yesterday, Williams, a vendor, had already left home for the market. Barnabas explained that her neighbour was not seriously injured but they were all still shaken by the incident. “Angela husband and my own work in the interior and these men that attack me, I feel they know that we were home alone and they plan it,” Barnabas said. “I don’t know if they think we had gold or something but they took away our jewellery,” she added.
Some time around 1am, Barnabas recalled, she was awakened by a strange noise coming from her front louvres window. She went to investigate and shortly after she heard a strange male voice demand that she open the door. The demand came several times and Barnabas, already terrified, refused. Barnabus lives in a small wooden house. Minutes after she refused to open the door, one of the men shattered her window and just after her wooden door was kicked open.
“Only two men came in the house but I hear later that there were five of them in all,” Barnabas said. Her attackers, she said, had been lurking around in her unfenced yard for almost an hour.
