(Trinidad Guardian) What was a usual family dinner turned into 30 minutes of terror for the Ghany family on Sunday night, as six men invaded their property and beat, tormented and traumatised them demanding cash and valuables.
The six men, one of whom was armed, later robbed the Aranguez family of $21,200 in cash, jewellery, clothes, bottles of Hennessy and cellphones before fleeing their Ramlal Trace Extension home in a Sport Utility Vehicle.
The criminals also targeted a couple at their home in Cunupia. In the two attacks many of the victims were left seriously injured and in distress.
Aranguez pensioner, Rasheed Ghany, who was badly beaten on his face thanked God yesterday for sparing his life and that of his family.
Ghany’s 15- year old grandson, a Form Four student of St George’s College, suffered the brunt of the blows and had to seek medical attention at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
The teenager was hit several times on his head with a gun, punched in his face and beaten with an iron curtain rod on his back and chest by the intruders.
He sustained a broken nose, four lacerations to his head and a battered and bruised body.
Ghany,73, said his 64-year-old wife, Rasheeda, their daughter Fazeela, son Wazir and three grandchildren (two females and one male) went through 30 minutes of terror by the criminals.
“It was 30 minutes of non-stop terror… non-stop,” Fazeela said.
Two of the grandchildren are Fazeela’s daughters-ages 17 and 21.
The other is Wazir’s son.
“I thought we were all going to die,” said a tearful Ghany, as he recounted the ordeal inside his ransacked home.
“When they do the gun so, right,” he said, motioning the trigger of the gun being pulled “I say I dead,” Ghany said, bursting into tears.
“They say pass the money. I tell meh wife go and give them, nah. I tell she before they kill anybody give them the money.”
Throughout their ordeal, Ghany said the men kept demanding money and jewellery from his wife.
“She tell them she ain’t have no jewels…she pawn it to fix the house. They wanted to know where she pawn the jewels,” he said.
“They feel because we are living in a big house we have plenty money. They don’t know how hard people struggling out here,” interjected Fazeela, 42, a divorcee.
With each passing moment, Ghany said the criminals’ demands kept growing.
Ghany said his family was having dinner in the kitchen around 8.14 pm.
“We were laughing and talking,” he recalled.
Then the dogs began barking ferociously.
This made Fazeela open her bedroom door only to see four men running up a long staircase inside the house.
The men gained entry by jumping the front gate and entering a side door that was opened.
Coming face-to-face with the bandits, Fazeela said she ran back into her room, locked the door and dialled 911 only to hear a voice recording on the other end saying “Please hold.”
Instantly, her hopes sank.
Unable to reach the police, Fazeela sent a voice note in the community’s WhatsApp group chat informing the residents that their home was under attack by bandits and needed help.
As Fazeela waited with bated breath for help, the thieves went on a rampage.
Fazeela’s 17-year-old daughter, a Form Five student of St Joseph Secondary School, said when she saw the thieves walking upstairs she attempt to jump over the verandah of the upper level of their home to escape them.
“But when I saw two of the criminals standing guard downstairs I had to reluctantly go back into the kitchen.”
The family runs a shop in front of their home while Ghany is a well-known farmer in the district.
Aranguez is one of T&T’s food baskets.
From her bedroom, Fazeela said she overheard her family bawling and begging the criminals for mercy while they were being beaten mercilessly.
The criminals used pieces of cloth, cords and electrical wire to tie up the family who was held at gunpoint while they ransacked their home.
“They tormented the family by pointing the gun at their heads and pulling the trigger,” Fazeela said.
They also kept beating Wazir and passing a knife around his neck and sticking him with the tip of the blade.
Ghany said the intruders told his wife that if she did not hand over the cash blood would flow.
“What got us frightened was when they said they will kill two people if they don’t find any money. My body just went numb. I didn’t know how to react,” Fazeela’s younger daughter said.
“They put the gun to their heads….they tried to shoot them… but the gun kept sticking. They wanted to cut off my mother’s ears. You know what it is to hear your mother, father, brother and children bawling and you can’t help,” Fazeela said, as tears rolled down her face.
Ghany said his heart broke when the men suddenly turned on his grandson.
“They started to beat him with the gun on his head. They cuff him in he face and break his nose. I beg and cry for them to leave my grandson alone. That boy get so much of licks from them fellas, I thought he was not going to make it when we saw him bleeding so much,” Ghany said, wiping away tears.
When the Guardian Media visited the family yesterday, there were blood stains on the flooring, walls, chairs, tables, doors, toilet and wardrobe.
Ghany’s grandson said he fought the bandits and managed to grab the gun from one of the men but it was quickly taken away.
Stating that he was trying to protect his family, the teenager said.
“One of the men picked up a curtain rod and began beating me on my chest and back. They kept telling me I could die at any time. I was scared but I was trying to get an opportunity to fight back because it is my family.”
Before leaving, the family said the men tried to render them unconscious by rubbing a cloth containing a chemical in their mouths.
“It had some faint chemical smell in the cloth that burst up our lips. We don’t know what it is.”
The last thing the bandits told Ghany before leaving is that they coming back for him.
“And when we come back this time it go have nobody living. Them come to kill we last night. But because that gun stick they ain’t get to shoot nobody…because God was on we side last night,” Fazeela said.
The Ghanys said they were robbed several times before and this has left yet another sour taste in their mouths.
“I told my father last night, let us just sell the house and go somewhere. This is about the sixth time we get targeted.”
The Ghanys said Aranguez has been under attack by criminal elements in the last few months.
Several of the residents and farmers in the community who spoke on the condition of anonymity said they have noticed an increase in home invasions which have them living in fear.
A release from the T&T Police Service Communication Unit stated that six men are now in police custody as a result of quick action by the Northeaster Division Task Force and Barataria Criminal Investigations Department following the robbery.
The officers responded immediately to the report and while on Ramlal Street they observed an SUV heading west at high speed.
The SUV then reversed and crashed into a wall. When officers approached the vehicle, one of the occupants pointed a firearm at the officers and shot in their direction.
The police returned fire.
The men then fled in different directions and after giving chase one of the suspects, suffering from gunshot wounds, was found in possession of a loaded Glock pistol.
The wounded suspect later died at the hospital while six suspects were arrested.
