(Trinidad Express) A mother who found a gunman outside her home intent on robbing and killing, saved herself and her teenage daughters on Monday.
In a remarkable show of strength and courage, Dianne Baptiste said she disarmed the thief, knocked him to the ground, and smashed him on the head with her favourite flower pots while keeping him in an arm lock. So bad was the beating that the suspect began screaming for help from an accomplice hiding nearby, but that person never came.
Baptiste, 41, of Williamsville, then helped police with a description that led to the arrest of the embarrassed man within an hour.
The 21-year-old suspect, who gave addresses at Five Rivers, Arouca and Pedro Trace, Valencia, is expected to appear in court today, facing weapons possession and attempted robbery charges. Baptiste survived the incident with an injured finger and toe.
She intends helping the State prove its case against the man.
Baptiste, a caterer with two teenage daughters, said her husband was away at work when the man came just after 9 a.m.
“It was while cleaning my home that I heard the dog making a funny sound. I looked out to see a stranger. Someone I never saw before,” she said. Baptiste neither hid nor ran.
Instead, she bolted out her front door.
“I went out to meet him. I asked ‘what are you doing here?’ He said this is a robbery”.
Baptiste said as the man spoke he reached into the waist of his pants for what she later found out was a foot-long sawed-off shotgun. Baptiste said she felt no fear. She felt anger.
“What was he going to do with this gun. Show it to me? No. He wanted to kill me. So I collared him. I shoved him and he fell backwards and the firearm fell out.”
Baptiste said she snatched the gun and threw it behind her, with man now in the muddy front lawn, and her teen daughters frantic and screaming.
Baptiste said, “he appeared a bit surprised. He started bawling really loud, trying to get away because I had him face down and I struck him with the flower pot”.
She said the man, now bleeding, was able to turn onto his back in an attempt to overpower her.
“He rolled away, got up and ran. Still saying ‘I go come back for you’. So I ran behind him.”
The thief disappeared along a rural road leading to another village. Baptiste said the police response, led by Sgt Don Gajadhar, was excellent. Police units from three stations were there within 12 minutes. It turned out later that the suspect and accomplice had planned to rob a service station in the village but abandoned the plan and fled into the forest, following a trail that led to Baptiste’s home.
While others faced with a similar situation may have capitulated, Baptiste said, “I could not. Our home has been broken twice before. “I did not want to be a victim a third time. And this man? Invading your privacy and then want to kill?”
Baptiste said her involvement in volleyball and the village cricket and football kept her fit enough to take on the man.
“I did not feel good having to hit him and jump on him. But I had to defend myself and my daughters,” she said.
