Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Still trau­ma­tised af­ter a two-hour home in­va­sion, a 72-year-old woman is call­ing for tougher ac­tion against crim­i­nals.

The pen­sion­er was among sev­er­al vic­tims of vi­o­lent home in­va­sions re­port­ed across South Trinidad over the past week.

Speak­ing at her St Mar­garet’s Vil­lage home yes­ter­day, the woman, who re­quest­ed anonymi­ty, said she fears the ban­dits who at­tacked her and her daugh­ter could re­turn.

She re­called that she and her daugh­ter went to bed around 11 pm on Sun­day. They were sleep­ing in sep­a­rate beds in the same room when two masked in­trud­ers en­tered the house through a win­dow af­ter re­mov­ing sev­er­al lou­vre panes.

Cry­ing as she re­count­ed the or­deal, she said, “I felt a hand over my mouth, and they said if I bawl, they would kill me right away. They were al­so telling her (my daugh­ter), ‘I will kill your moth­er if you don’t co­op­er­ate.’ She had to stay qui­et like a lamb.”

De­scrib­ing the at­tack as a night­mare, she said, “It was aw­ful. It was ter­ri­ble.”

The wid­ow, who re­cent­ly lost a son to a heart at­tack, said she prayed for sur­vival.

“I kept call­ing on Je­sus’ name. I said, ‘Je­sus, help me. This is the time I need you.’ I told them to take every­thing but spare my life—and He did.”

Af­ter the ban­dits left, her daugh­ter man­aged to free her­self and seek help. The in­trud­ers es­caped with more than $3,000, in­clud­ing her pen­sion, jew­ellery and cell­phones.

The woman al­so sup­port­ed the Gov­ern­ment’s de­ci­sion to ex­tend the State of Emer­gency.

“I feel they should be more se­ri­ous with crim­i­nals. When they catch them, deal prop­er­ly with them. Don’t let them go—keep them in prison if you have to,” she said.

In an­oth­er in­ci­dent on Sun­day night, a 31-year-old Princes Town woman was chopped and her 14-year-old daugh­ter as­sault­ed dur­ing a home in­va­sion.

Po­lice said two masked men forced their way in­to their home short­ly af­ter 11 pm. One of the sus­pects chopped the woman in the face be­fore slap­ping the teenag­er. The ban­dits did not steal any­thing.

Days ear­li­er, on June 5, a 48-year-old man was shot in the neck af­ter two in­trud­ers en­tered his Caratal Road home around 2 am, de­mand­ing mon­ey, drugs and a cell­phone.

Po­lice said one of the ban­dits struck him re­peat­ed­ly with a firearm be­fore shoot­ing him.

On the same day, a 68-year-old man was as­sault­ed and robbed while sit­ting in the gallery of his Cir­cu­lar Road, San Fer­nan­do home.

Po­lice said two gun­men ap­proached, slapped him in the face and stole a gold co­coa-head be­ra val­ued at $15,000.

The sus­pects al­so forced his 65-year-old rel­a­tive in­to a bed­room and robbed her of cash be­fore es­cap­ing in a black Hyundai Elantra.

Po­lice in­ves­ti­ga­tions in­to the in­ci­dents are con­tin­u­ing.