In March, the Sunday Guardian spotlighted the farming community of Carlsen Field which has experienced a wave of home invasions and attacks on residents, including rape.
Two weeks ago, a robbery ended in the tragic killing of 27-year-old farmer Christopher Christian after four armed bandits invaded his family’s home on Connector Road. His father, Matthew Perez Christian, 66, who was shot four times in his stomach, is still fighting for his life at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex.
Head of the Central Division Snr Supt Garvin Simon told the Sunday Guardian that the police have made no headway with that murder investigation.
Guardian Media re-visited the residents to find out what it would take to make them feel safe again.
SHALIZA HASSANALI
Senior Investigative Reporter
shaliza.hassanali@guardian.co.tt
Geeta Lakhan, 63, a livestock farmer, has been robbed 14 times in the past ten years. She has lost confidence in the police. For her, the Carlsen Field community needs the army to keep it safe.
Between March and July 8 there have been 22 violent home invasions in the farming community and the farmers are convinced the police are incapable of catching the criminals who have been terrorising their community since the start of this year.
Lakhan said she has lost confidence in the police and wants the authorities to bring in private investigators “or somebody from abroad” to to restore peace in the community.
She also wants a curfew should be imposed to restrict the thieves’ movements.
Lakhan has thought about selling her farm and migrating and compared T&T to Haiti where there is widespread insecurity, gang violence and crime.
“It’s not worth it anymore,” she said, her voice choking with emotion.
Her farm, once her sanctuary, has become a magnet for robbers. In all the robberies she has experienced, the police only arrested one suspect, a national of Suriname.
The latest attack was two weeks ago when four masked bandits, two of whom were armed, ambushed Lakhan’s husband David, 67, while he was exercising in the yard of their home around 5.30 am. He was hogtied and badly beaten.
Her husband endured 30 minutes of terror and torment before thieves left with a quantity of US currency and more than $50,000 in jewellery and cash.
“They kept asking my husband, ‘Where is the lady? Where is the wife?’” Lakhan said.
She had gone to visit her grandson who was going abroad.
“If I was there, it could have been worse because maybe my husband would have tried to defend me, and it may have ended tragically.”
Lakhan said the thieves kicked in four doors on the ground floor of their property as they searched for cash, jewellery and valuables, then moved to the upper floor where they ransacked the bedrooms.
Her husband endured 30 minutes of terror and torment before thieves left with a quantity of US currency and more than $50,000 in jewellery and cash.
CCTV cameras, private security and security systems do not deter the criminals. Lakhan has been held up at gunpoint four times.
“In our business, we have been robbed several times. They stole a truck and cars. I stopped counting. It’s unbearable now. Now it’s so dangerous you cannot come out of your house. I feel like a prisoner in my own home. Every day I live in fear. I am very shaken up, to be honest,” she said.
A week before the latest robbery, Lakhan spotted a man snooping around the farm and sounded an air horn to chase him away.
“I knew they were going to come back. This time they come in full force,” she said
Now she is thinking of installing an electric fence which is very costly.
Give us guns
President of the Goat and Sheep Farmers Association Shiraz Khan said after Christopher’s murder he did a head count of farmers in the village who had been robbed between March and July 8.
“It was about 22 robberies . . . until one farmer had to fight back and get killed. Even after these bastards shot Christopher they kept asking for more money but when they realised the boy dead they run,” he said
There are 160 subsistence and commercial farmers in Carlsen Field, a rural district where the farms and houses are not close to each other.
In March, four armed criminals entered Khan’s home at Connector Road and robbed his wife, threatening to chop off her fingers.
He said: “I was the second person who got robbed and after that home invasion, it just started to escalate until it ended in a senseless murder.”
He called for farmers to be given licensed firearms to protect themselves.
“We can’t fight the bandits with cutlasses and fishing guns. We need firearms to protect ourselves. No farmer go shoot another farmer or he wife,” he said.
Khan believes the robbers live in the community or nearby
“They know the area well and have been monitoring the farmers’ movements. I feel seasoned criminals have been working with them,” he said.
Two weeks ago Dubraj Jugmohan, 66, was accosted by four men brandishing guns at his Xeres Road home. His wife Prematie, 63, was lighting a deya around 6.30 am inside her temple when the men pointed their guns at her and forced her inside the house.
Jugmohan was ordered to lie face down on the floor.
“They kicked me several times in my ribs and hit me a few times with the gun butt. My daughter was in her bedroom. But they kicked in the door. She started to scream out,” he said
All the pensioner could do was pray.
“Thank God she was not harmed,” he said.
Then men ransacked Jugmohan’s home looking for money and valuables.
As he related the trauma his family faced, Jugmohan had to pause several times to compose himself. His hands could not stop shaking.
The robbers also stole his daughter’s car which was found gutted in Enterprise days later.
Since the incident, Jugmohan has been uneasy.
“Of course, I have to be scared. My house is like a jail. I have to keep every door locked now. I have to be looking over my shoulder... I don’t know if they will come back,” he said.
‘Police can only do so much’ (Put in Box)
Since the spate of robberies and the recent murder, the head of the Central Division Snr Supt Garvin Simon said there have been additional patrols in Carlsen Field.
However, he said the police “can only do so much” and urged the residents to partner with them to form a community watch group.
“We have engaged them, but they have not responded as we would like so we continue to reach out,” Simon said
A meeting with the station council is scheduled for Tuesday.
TTPS statistics showed that from January to May there were 152 burglaries and breakings in the Central Division compared to the 128 for the same period last year. In the last five months, 179 robberies were reported compared to 186 for the same period in 2023.
There were 36 woundings and shootings in the last five months compared to 40 from January to May of 2023.