Sascha Wil­son

Se­nior Re­porter

sascha.wil­son@guardian.co.tt

Just two weeks af­ter po­lice shot and killed two al­leged as­sailants in her neigh­bour­hood, Unit­ed Na­tion­al Con­gress coun­cil­lor Vanes­sa Kussie was robbed out­side her home on Thurs­day night.

In a tele­phone in­ter­view with Guardian Me­dia yes­ter­day, Kussie, the coun­cil­lor for Cou­va West/Roys­to­nia, said one of the two ban­dits was armed with a gun.

Al­though the gun­man did not point the weapon at her, she said he point­ed it at her 45-year-old neigh­bour, who was al­so robbed.

Re­count­ing the in­ci­dent, Kussie said she was sit­ting out­side her home, where her son op­er­ates the Nick and Nigel Mi­ni Mart, around 9.30 pm when two men ap­proached the shop, pre­tend­ing to be cus­tomers. She said the men were not from the neigh­bour­hood.

One bought a small Co­ca-Co­la be­fore ap­proach­ing his ac­com­plice, who gave him $3 to pur­chase a bot­tle of wa­ter.

As the first man re­turned from the shop, the sec­ond, who had a ban­dana tied around his neck, stood close to Kussie. She said the man sig­nalled to his ac­com­plice be­fore point­ing to­wards her.

“When he came out of the shop with the wa­ter, he just snatched the chain, be­cause I just felt a sting on my neck and grabbed it. He walked away quick­ly. They both walked in the di­rec­tion they came from,” she re­called.

The men then ap­proached her neigh­bour, who was stand­ing in front of his car, and robbed him at gun­point.

“He said, ‘Don’t shoot, take what you want,’” Kussie said.

The ban­dits stole his car keys, wal­let and phone.

Kussie, the wid­ow of Rishi Na­gasar, one of four divers who died in the Paria tragedy, said the rob­bery was the lat­est in a se­ries of trau­mat­ic ex­pe­ri­ences for her fam­i­ly.

A few years ago, she was robbed at her restau­rant and bar, which she no longer owns, and last year one of her sons was kid­napped. He was res­cued by po­lice sev­er­al hours lat­er.

While ac­knowl­edg­ing that po­lice have been con­duct­ing reg­u­lar pa­trols in the area, Kussie said crime re­mains a ma­jor con­cern for res­i­dents of Roys­to­nia and neigh­bour­ing com­mu­ni­ties.

Kussie said she had con­tact­ed the po­lice, who re­spond­ed prompt­ly and con­tin­ued to check on her fam­i­ly.

She praised the of­fi­cers for their re­sponse but stressed that par­ents al­so have a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to help pre­vent young peo­ple from turn­ing to crime.

She urged par­ents to en­sure their chil­dren re­main in school or learn a trade, em­pha­sis­ing the im­por­tance of guid­ance and pos­i­tive op­por­tu­ni­ties for young peo­ple.

The rob­bery comes two weeks af­ter two men were fa­tal­ly shot by po­lice dur­ing sep­a­rate en­coun­ters in Per­se­ver­ance.

On Oc­to­ber 12, of­fi­cers re­spond­ing to an in­ci­dent along Per­ry Street, Per­se­ver­ance Road, en­coun­tered a group of men in­side a Nis­san Ti­i­da, who al­leged­ly opened fire on them. Po­lice re­turned fire, fa­tal­ly shoot­ing 45-year-old Ja­son Hi­laire of East­ern Quar­ry, Laven­tille.

Dur­ing a sub­se­quent man­hunt, of­fi­cers en­coun­tered 41-year-old Nixon Stew­art, al­so of Laven­tille, in an over­grown lot along near­by Pe­ter Street.

Po­lice said Stew­art opened fire on the of­fi­cers, who re­turned fire and fa­tal­ly shot him. Three oth­er men were de­tained dur­ing the op­er­a­tion.