It was the cry of “Look Uncle Peppers coming” that apparently saved the life of Satwatanttie Ramperasud yesterday morning after 3 when two men, one armed with a cutlass and the other a gun, chopped her several times before attempting to rob her home.
Rampersaud, 44, of Lot 30 Diamond Squatting Area, sitting in a wheelchair outside the X-ray section of the Georgetown Public Hospital, told Stabroek News that she had been awakened by a loud noise when “they push de glass window and it break and I start fuh halla.”
She said that two men had broken the louvre window on the eastern side of the house and entered her bedroom. Rampersaud stated one of the men then grabbed her and asked “Wey de money, wey de money.” She said she told them that she did not know what they were talking about and she did not have anything.
Rampersaud, now in tears, recalled that one of the men who was holding a cutlass then started to chop her in the head and about the body while the other went in search of the money. Rampersaud noted that all the while her reputed husband, Totaram Persaud, 37, and her ten-year-old daughter, Varsha Singh, were hiding under a bed. She said that when the search proved futile after the men had ransacked her wardrobe and Chester drawers, the one with the gun fired four shots at her but missed.
She was then chopped with a cutlass. Then the other man grabbed her and began bending her head backwards but according to Rampersaud “I fight fuh me life.” She said when she realized that the men were not ceasing their attack, she started shouting “Look Uncle Peppers (her neighbour) coming.”
She said that the men immediately released her and fled on foot through the same window they had entered. Rampersaud said that she then ran over to a neigbour’s house screaming and soon after the police were called in.
She said that the police were taken by residents to a suspect’s home where they were greeted by his mother who refused to let them in, saying that he was not there and later she claimed that he was sleeping. The police soon entered the house where the suspect was found in his bed where he was said to be sleeping.
The suspect and another man have been arrested, according to reports. Rampersaud sustained six chops to her head and face, a broken nose and a chop to her upper right thigh while her husband and daughter suffered cuts on their feet from pieces of broken glass as they attempted to leave the house.
It is unclear if anything was stolen during the attack. (Ayanna Blair)