A Christmas Eve decorating ritual turned frightening on Saturday night, after a food vendor’s home was invaded by armed men, who shot her brother and robbed her of $155,000 in cash and some jewellery.
According to a police release, at around 11 pm, food vendor Babalyn Cozier, 48, and her brother Trenton Benn, 57, were at her home at Goedverwagting, East Coast Demerara, when two men armed with guns entered through an open door and held them up.
The release added that the men then ransacked the place and took away jewellery, two cell phones, and $155,000, during which Benn was shot to his left leg. The perpetrators escaped.
Benn, who was taken to and admitted to the Georgetown Public Hospital, spoke to Stabroek News yesterday from the Male Surgical Ward. The man, a resident of Cummings Lodge, related that he, his sister and two others were inside the house when the attack occurred. “She was decorating the home and two guys just run in the house”. Benn explained that the men, who were masked and armed, began shouting for everyone to get on the ground. He continued that “with that, one of them; the tall one who came in the door first; shot me in the leg,” as he was about to drop to the floor.
Benn said that as this was transpiring the other bandit approached Cozier; who had been stooping mending her curtains; pointed the gun in her face and began taking off all her jewels. He said they then asked his sister the whereabouts of “all the gold, the ‘tillarie’ and the day’s earnings”, to which Cozier responded that all were in the bank. The men, who Benn explained operated as though they knew their way around the house, then entered Cozier’s bedroom, where they confiscated an apron that contained a quantity of cash. “After this they left,” Benn said, adding that there was a dark-coloured car awaiting them into which they escaped.
The injured man was also robbed of two cellular phones and his wallet containing about $9,000. The other two occupants of the house at the time escaped unhurt, he said, but explained that one of them [his nephew] was also robbed of his phone and some cash. Benn said that his sister sells in the vicinity of the Plaisance bus park and as such it is suspected that the men had been watching her movements for some time.
He added that the intruders also entered the house a little after Cozier’s husband had exited.
Investigations continue into the matter.
