JOSHUA SEEMU­N­GAL 

The mem­bers of an­oth­er com­mu­ni­ty in Trinidad have been left un­easy and ter­ri­fied fol­low­ing a home in­va­sion this morn­ing. This time, it is the gat­ed com­mu­ni­ty of Vic­to­ria Gar­dens in Pe­tit Val­ley.

Guardian Me­dia un­der­stands, be­tween the hours of 3 am and 4 am on Thurs­day, a group of armed men broke in­to a home be­long­ing to busi­ness own­ers, at Or­chid Av­enue South.

At the time of the home in­va­sion, six mem­bers of the fam­i­ly were in the house—in­clud­ing an el­der­ly cou­ple and a mi­nor.

One man was car­ried away by am­bu­lance in an un­con­scious state, af­ter be­ing beat­en se­vere­ly and tor­tured with a sword. Rel­a­tives said the men were de­mand­ing to know where a key and mon­ey were.

Oth­er mem­bers of the fam­i­ly al­so were bound by the wrist and beat­en.

Re­ports are one of the at­tack­ers had en­tered the com­mu­ni­ty in a ve­hi­cle, telling se­cu­ri­ty that he was go­ing to a cer­tain home.

Vic­tims said an­oth­er three or four men were in­volved in the home in­va­sion, but they were un­sure of how they got in­to the com­mu­ni­ty be­cause it seemed as though they didn’t en­ter the ve­hi­cle with the dri­ver.

“Right now, we need to wait and see what’s go­ing on be­cause there’s some­thing big­ger than this. These guys knew what they were do­ing. They told se­cu­ri­ty they were com­ing to a cer­tain home here,” a fam­i­ly mem­ber told Guardian Me­dia.

“J was not re­spond­ing… I sat down, and I could see in his room and all of them beat­ing him… From here go down, foot­print… they cut him up all on his head… I had to tie his knee be­cause it was gush­ing blood,” said Kim, one of the vic­tims.

She said the po­lice took a long time to re­spond; that it was around 30 min­utes be­fore they re­spond­ed.

The Four Roads Po­lice Sta­tion is lo­cat­ed less than a two to three-minute dri­ve away.

When a rel­a­tive came to ask ques­tions, Kim and her rel­a­tives broke down, as she ex­plained what took place and what hap­pened to the fam­i­ly.

It’s un­clear to Guardian Me­dia, at this time, if any mon­ey was tak­en from the home.

Neigh­bours who gath­ered out­side ex­pressed con­cern that crime ar­rived so close to home but said that giv­en the coun­try’s crime sit­u­a­tion, they knew that no com­mu­ni­ty is tru­ly safe.

“It feels very un­easy af­ter this hap­pened. Oh, Je­sus. We have gone to the dogs. These crim­i­nals are do­ing what they want,” said an el­der­ly woman who lives next door.

“We at war. It just hasn’t been de­clared yet. We need to de­clare war now on the crim­i­nals,” an­oth­er neigh­bour said.

A third neigh­bour, an el­der­ly man, said he’s nev­er seen crime in the coun­try this bad be­fore.

“It’s down­right scary. Last night my wife and I were watch­ing the news about all the mur­ders and killings. I don’t know what's gone wrong with this coun­try. You hope it doesn’t come by you, but look at what hap­pened here,” he said, shak­ing his head.