-shot hero mom after fighting bandit
By Mandy Thompson
Bibi Samaroo is a brave and strong woman in the eyes of her family after she fearlessly fought with an armed bandit during a late night home invasion on Tuesday, in which she was shot twice.
Samaroo, 36, and a mother of two, is currently recovering at a private hospital as a result of the wounds she received in the attack at her Section ‘A’ Diamond, East Bank Demerara home.
“I never thought about a situation like this but it just happen… even though he had a gun, I still fight with him. I was not scared at all,” she told Stabroek News yesterday, when asked why she decided to fight back.
As she lay in her hospital bed surrounded by her family, she was very cheerful and managed to keep a smile on her face despite the pain she was experiencing as she recounted the dreadful night.
The attack occurred at about 11:30pm on Tuesday, while her husband was out and her two sons were asleep in the house.
Bibi, who had been recuperating at home after being hospitalized for about a month prior, said she was in her bedroom when she realised that the patio door next to her room was open. As she stepped out of her bed and was about to close the grilled door of the patio, she saw a man with a gun. He pointed it at her, while telling her to be quiet.
‘He started to
shoot me’
At that point, Bibi said all she could remember is rushing to the bandit and fighting with him. As she fought with the armed man, she screamed but no one came to her assistance.
She tore off her attacker’s shirt, knocked off his hat and the bandana he was covering his face with, bit him and even threw him off the patio rail as he barely hung on in an effort to prevent him from entering her home and coming face to face with her children. She told this newspaper that she fought for about 15 minutes with the bandit, who had no other alternative than to shoot her so as to overpower her. “I start to scream and then he started lashing me in my head with the gun but I managed pushing him over the rail but he hold on,” she said. “He keep lashing me in my head but he see I was determined to get him off so he started to shoot me,” she added. The two shots fired by the man hit Bibi on the right and left side of her back. The bullets, which were removed, were lodged in her breast and the other in her pelvic area, which caused damage to her liver, stomach and lungs.
After she was shot, Bibi said she lay motionless on the ground but was conscious of what was occurring. From the floor, she saw the bandit stepping into her room, exiting it and then jumping the patio rail to return to the yard. The bandit carted off with a hand bag containing $25,000. Three bicycles along with the bandana the bandit wore were recovered from the Samaroo’s home when the police arrived. Further investigations in the matter are being conducted by the police. “When he go downstairs, I get up quick and stand by the door, when I see two others on the fence at the back. So I go inside and lock the door and call my husband.”
Her husband, who was not at home when the incident occurred, had said he received a call from his wife informing him that she had been shot. He said he had dropped his wife home earlier in the night with their two children and left to attend to some business. He stated that while on the road, he called her and told her to fry an egg for him as he would be home shortly. About 10 minutes after he had spoken to her, he said, she called him back saying that she had been shot. Bibi told this newspaper that as she was fighting with the bandit, her aim was to prevent him from entering the house because if he had done so, he would have come in contact with her eldest son who was in his room. Her smaller child, however, woke up and was looking helplessly as she fought the bandit.
“I din scream for my son, ’cause I din want him to come into the fight. So, I said I gon battle this and I did… my idea was to keep him there (on the patio) and throw him over,” she explained. Even though she was injured and bleeding from her wounds, the woman said she managed to get up, make a call and even opened the door, which is about five meters away, for her husband to enter the house as he was unable to find his key to get in. When asked where she got the strength to walk to the door, she said, “from God and my mom, but I know I had to get up and make a call.” She added, “I did not fall at no time, I walk straight and told my husband to take me to the hospital but I was conscious throughout.”
Bibi, proud of what she has done, said other women that find themselves in her place should not give up. “Don’t give up but fight because it will drive fear into those persons from coming back and attack them,” she said. “It’s dangerous but who could try it, try it like I did,” she added.
