Diamond New Housing Scheme businessman and miner Donald Caitan, his daughter and son-in-law were shot by gunmen early yesterday morning during an attempted robbery.
The three injured relatives were among five others who were terrorised by two gunmen, some time around 2am. Mahendra Singh, 29, and his wife Naomi Singh, 19, were wounded to the lower back and hip, respectively. Both have been discharged from the hospital.
Caitan, 49, sustained a gunshot wound to the left leg. Relatives told this newspaper that as a result of the injury, the man suffered a fracture to the bone in that leg and was up to late yesterday afternoon undergoing surgery.
Minutes before the gunmen shot Caitan and the Singhs, they broke into the house in which his mother-in-law and two daughters were sleeping. Caitan and his wife usually slept in a room in their business place, which is located just in front the house at the corner of the Diamond New Housing Scheme Access Road and 19th Street. The Singhs and their child live in a small apartment attached to the building which houses the business place.
Sewdai Bhagwandai Moonsammy told Stabroek News that she heard a sound some time before 2am. The woman recounted that she was “lying down inside when ah hear de gate open.” At first, Moonsammy thought it was one of her sons-in-law checking the gate and locking it.
However, after that first sound the woman said she continued to hear more “movements.” Moonsammy said she left her bed and went out into the hall as the noise persisted and she peeped through a crease in the front door.
“De door de bolt from inside,” the woman explained. “When ah first peep ah see ah nothing and then when ah pull back ah see this light shining from de crease to the top and then it cut off.” According to Moonsammy, shortly after she returned to bed, she got up and went back in the hall after she heard another noise. When she went into the hall the second time, Moonsammy recalled, the door was open and the next thing she knew two masked men were holding guns to her head.
The attackers started to demand money and valuables from Moonsammy but she told them she was a sick woman who was living with her son-in-law and daughter and had no money. “I de frighten bad, bad, so I beg them not to do me anything… I tell dem that my daughter and son-in-law got de money and that dem sleeping in de shop,” she said.
After warning her to be quiet, one of the gunmen took her hand and led Moonsammy out of the house and to the shop, where Caitan and her daughter were sleeping. The gunmen, according to Moonsammy, told her to call out to her daughter and pretend that she was sick. “I does travel with diabetes so sometimes I does tek in on them,” she explained.
Moonsammy said that her voice was trembling when she started calling out her daughter and the woman immediately alerted Caitan and opened the door to see what was wrong with her.
“As soon as meh daughter open de door, one ah dem jump pon she and tell she lie down on de floor with she hands on she head,” she recalled.
As the gunmen demanded money from Caitan and his wife, Moonsammy reported, Mahendra and his wife heard the exchange and came out of their adjoining apartment. “The thief man dem thought he [Mahendra] had a gun and dem start shoot and den after that happen one big struggle start,” she recalled. “Dem fight with one another and more than six shot fire off.”
After the gunmen exhausted the bullets in their weapons, Moonsammy said, they started to run. They managed to get out of the yard and started to run east along the Access Road towards the sugarcane fields. One of the attackers left a pair of blue slippers behind.
Caitan, according the woman, made one final attempt to run after the men but he collapsed on his bridge bleeding. Moonsammy said that her two granddaughters, who were left in the bedroom called police and they arrived a short time later. It was police who transported the injured persons to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
A senior police source told this newspaper that a lot more work needs to be done in the Diamond Housing Scheme area in terms of security. He explained that in recent times there have been numerous reports of breakages on homes when people leave for work during the day. As such, there has been an increase of patrols in the area. A Community Policing Group was also recently formed in the area.
The scheme, according to the source, is huge and can be accessed from different points.
In a press release issued several hours after the incidents police said that “the two armed men went to the home of Naomi Singh’s grandmother who resides in the front house of the yard and called out for her. She went out to them and was used by the two men to go to the other house in the yard, where the three victims reside. The grandmother was forced to call out for the occupants who suspected that it was a robbery attempt.”
Caitan and Mahendra, police reported in their account of the events, confronted the two armed men and a scuffle ensued during which the attackers managed to free themselves and while escaping discharged several rounds at them.
Last month, less than an hour after three cousins arrived from Trinidad they were attacked by three gunmen and robbed of more than $10 million in cash and jewellery. The attack occurred during predawn hours in the Diamond New Housing Scheme. Cousins Tazeena Ally, Zoreina Bibi Kadir and Zamal Mohammed were robbed of all their cash, jewellery and other valuables. Police are yet to make an arrest in the matter.
