Bandits yesterday morning launched a bloody attack on a family that had just returned from the Timehri airport, injuring two men before escaping with two bags from a motor car that was about to turn into the family’s Middle Road, La Penitence home.
Forty-two-year-old Sathram Persaud was rushed to a private hospital with a bullet injury to his right leg while his cousin, Prem Persaud, 28, was grazed by a bullet to his neck. Sathram was admitted and is in a stable condition in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit while his cousin was treated and sent away. The bullet that hit the older Persaud passed through his leg and left a hole in one of the car seats.
Prem Persaud and his girlfriend had just arrived in the country and were picked up by Sathram and his aunt Rowtie Singh from the airport. They were about to enter Singh’s Middle Road home when the bandits attacked them and escaped with the bags. The bags contained food and some alcoholic beverages valued at US$200.
Police in a release said they are investigating the robbery and that the men were shot after they resisted the bandit’s demands for valuables.
“It was not a good welcome for my nephew and his girlfriend,” the still tramautised Singh told Stabroek News yesterday morning as she stared at the dry blood from her nephews that was in her yard and on her bridge.
The woman related that they had just gotten back from the airport at around 4:45 yesterday morning and she had already exited the car and was opening the gate with the assistance of her nephew, Prem. She said the car was about to drive into the yard when they observed two men running towards them and one of them said “Stop! This is a f..king robbery.”
The woman said she immediately ran to the back of the house and hid and from her hiding place she heard two gunshots. The woman said Sathram was the driver of the car and was still inside when he got hit while Prem was shot while he attempted to scale the fence. She explained that the car was partly in the yard and Prem may have been attempting to go to the rescue of his girlfriend and cousin when he scaled the fence.
“Is a graze like he get but the bullet stick in he neck because he pull it out and the police collect it when them come,” the woman said.
She further stated that Prem had come in for a religious function in memory of his late mother and after treatment at the hospital he travelled immediately to the West Coast of Demerara for the function.
The woman said they were later told by a neighbour that there were five men involved in the robbery and they were assisted by a car that was parked in Hunter Street.
“He say when he see the men he shout fuh thief, thief but we didn’t hear anything because we had the car window dem wind up,” the woman said.
The woman said they may have been traced from the airport because as far as she knows not many persons knew they were headed to the airport.
“This cell phone thing is a good and a bad thing because somebody coulda call from the airport,” interjected her husband as he sat listening to his wife as she spoke to this newspaper.
Singh and her husband said it is not the first time they have come under attack in the 12 years they have been living at the address. They recalled before they moved into the house and were building they were attacked while turning into the construction site. The bandits escaped with $1.5M all of which did not belong to them. They were attacked under similar circumstances three other times prior to yesterday morning.
“We is poor people struggling and is really hard. We don’t know what else to do,” a frustrated sounding Singh said yesterday.
The couple, who has a son living with them, said they were forced to grill their entire home and thankfully they were never attacked in their home but they are always scared whenever entering their yard.
