RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

rad­hi­ca.sookraj@guardian.co.tt

Pe­o­la Bap­tiste, the lone fe­male se­cu­ri­ty of­fi­cer who was shot sev­er­al times dur­ing Mon­day’s dead­ly Pen­ny­wise heist by six ban­dits, has re­gained con­scious­ness.

Bap­tiste suf­fered a stroke on Wednes­day, which prompt­ed doc­tors to per­form life-sav­ing surgery. Al­though she has re­gained con­scious­ness, Bap­tiste re­mains heav­i­ly se­dat­ed as she re­cu­per­ates at the In­ten­sive Care Unit.

Speak­ing to Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, her daugh­ter Makin­ni Welling­ton said: “We are thank­ful she has opened her eyes. Her con­di­tion is still sta­ble.”

Bap­tiste, a sin­gle moth­er of six, and grand­moth­er of four, suf­fered gun­shots to the chest, ab­domen and arms. Her face was al­so grazed by the bul­let which frac­tured her right cheek­bone.

Welling­ton said the fam­i­ly is tak­ing turns vis­it­ing Bap­tiste in the hos­pi­tal.

Hav­ing been in the se­cu­ri­ty in­dus­try for over 20 years, Bap­tiste was al­ways seen as the pil­lar of strength in her fam­i­ly.

Welling­ton said they were con­tin­u­ing to pray over her moth­er, beg­ging God to spare her life.

Bap­tiste was the on­ly guard who sur­vived an at­tack by six ban­dits armed with AR-15s, who opened fire on their un­ar­moured Mit­subishi Tri­ton around 5 pm on Mon­day. Her col­leagues Jef­fery Pe­ters, 51, and Jer­ry Win­ston Stu­art, 49, were killed in the at­tack.

Po­lice sub­se­quent­ly killed four of the ban­dits, iden­ti­fied as broth­ers Kyle and Keon Ramd­han, Greg Dodough and Deaun­dre Mon­trose, dur­ing a shootout as they tried to hide un­der a house at Jones Street, La Ro­main. Two oth­er sus­pects were sub­se­quent­ly ar­rest­ed but are yet to be charged in con­nec­tion with the in­ci­dent.

A sol­dier who works at the T&T Reg­i­ment base at La Ro­main was al­so de­tained for ques­tion­ing and one of the bul­let­proof vests used by the ban­dits was said to be­long to a po­lice of­fi­cer from the South West­ern Di­vi­sion.

A nine-year-old boy was al­so grazed by a bul­let, which left him with a wound near his eye.

The boy’s fa­ther told Guardian Me­dia that he un­der­went a sur­gi­cal pro­ce­dure yes­ter­day and will spend an­oth­er week at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal. The child at­tends Siparia RC pri­ma­ry school.