Omesh Balram, the 16-year-old son of a Corentyne Cambio dealer, was on Thursday evening shot to his spine after gunmen invaded their home and is currently a patient of the Intensive Care Unit at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
Yesterday his sister Lisa Balram, 18, recalled that around 6.30 pm on Thursday, the community lost power. However, around 8 pm electricity was restored and their father, Dinesh Balram called ‘Ole Daag’, went to the bottom flat to turn off the inverter they were using during the power outage.
Prior to the power being restored, she said, her father and a younger brother were sitting on the veranda, while she was in her room and her now injured brother was on his computer in the sitting room.
Lisa Balram explained to this publication that when her father left to switch over the electricity, he told Omesh to stand near the main switch to turn it on to avoid darkness in the home.
It was at that time, the traumatised sister said, that two bandits entered their home from the veranda. One placed a gun to her younger brother’s head and the other approached Omesh and asked for their father. She said she did not have a clear idea as to what occurred next, but her brother was shot right where he was standing near the main switch.
The children’s father, on hearing the gunshot, ran to the public road shouting for help. The young woman said a shot was fired at him, but the men then escaped.
She added that neighbours rushed over and assisted the family.
Omesh was rushed to Skeldon Hospital then to the New Amsterdam Hospital and later in the night, he was transferred to the GPH.
Lisa Balram said she suspected that there were more than two bandits. She explained that afterwards they noticed a chair in front of the veranda down stairs. She said it appeared that the third man stood on the chair and hoisted the other two into the veranda.
Dinesh Balram has been a Cambio dealer for approximately seven years.
A police source yesterday told Stabroek News that investigators are yet to speak with other members of the family.
