Sherry Lake was yesterday chopped to the head in a bandit attack at Norton Street, Georgetown during which one of the assailants also bit a diamond ring off of her son-in-law’s finger.
Police later said that three suspects were arrested shortly after the midday attack, at the nearby Le Repentir Cemetery.
As she awaited an X-ray examination at the George-town Public Hospital (GPH), Lake told Stabroek News that the robbery occurred around 12:20pm. At the time she was at the Lot 19 Norton Street residence with her daughter Patrisha Edwards, 19, son-in-law Abdool Sattaur, 25, and her three grandchildren, ages between one and four years.
Lake explained that the four-year-old had just returned home from nursery school and they had just received some ice from their downstairs neighbour. As a result, the top half of their door was left open. “’Bout five minutes after, I hear three knocks, and my daughter went to the door,” she said.
The woman related that she then heard a slight commotion at the door and when she got up to see what was going on, she saw her daughter being held by one of three men who had entered the house. By this time, the one holding on to her daughter, upon spotting Lake, snatched the gold chain from her daughter’s neck and then advanced towards her, demanding that she “give me the money and gold that you have.”
When Lake responded that she did not have either, this apparently angered the bandit. She said he “chuck me into de wall” and the surprised woman then did the same thing to him, causing him to “hold on on me left thumb” as he drew an ice-pick from his pants waist. “I saw him fumbling with he pants and he had a gun. I saw the top of the gun, but he take out de ice-pick,” Lake said.
As she and the others saw the weapon, they began to “make noise” and the armed man shouted for them to shut up. After Lake responded—“who is you?”—the man drew a cutlass, while her one-year-old granddaughter went up to the man and held on to his leg. The irritated bandit lifted his arm and believing that he was going to harm the infant, Lake said she pushed him once more, saying “please don’t do anything to she, she small.” The man then chopped her to the forehead.
The woman, who was by then bleeding profusely, related that the bandit then bit a diamond ring off of Sattaur’s finger and took the silver chain that he was wearing around his neck. Lake said that after seeing the blood pouring down, she ran. “Is only one entrance we have [to the front of the house], so I went out de window on [to] the zinc top and jump straight downstairs in de gutter. By de time I reach down and look up, I see them run down the stairs, straight out to the road. Me neighbour come out and say ‘is wah going on?’ and he [the armed bandit] point de ice-pick on she and seh ‘shut up,’” she related.
The three men then fled the scene on foot, running through another neighbour’s yard, and, according to Lake, “straight into Le Repentir.” The police were alerted by public-spirited persons and they arrived within five minutes. “They come and meet me right in de gutter with de blood running down, and I tell them what happen and they tell me to clean up mehself lil and they bring me to de hospital. Thas how I end up here,” the woman said.
Following the X-Ray examination, it was revealed that her right leg was broken. She was treated and sent away, and up to press time was preparing to visit the police station to give a statement.
Lake and her family are speculating as to whether the robbery was a set-up, as Sattaur had just returned from the interior, where he works as a miner, Tuesday night. “Somebody had to tell them, ’cause how they pass all them house and just come here so?” Edwards wondered aloud.
