Forty-one-year-old businessman Rakish Harold, also called Anil, his wife Nadia, 41, and their 21-year-old son Andrew were, in the wee hours of Monday, forced to vacate their home at Lot 41 Number 73 Village, Corentyne Berbice, by jumping 10 feet from their verandah into a neighbour’s yard, where they sought refuge as a group of heavily-armed bandits invaded their home.
The businessman and his wife received injuries to their feet as a result of them jumping off the shed; and, upon seeing them fleeing, the bandits discharged several rounds at the victims, hitting Rakesh in the right region of his body as he attempted to climb down a post to lessen the distance he had to jump. They are now patients at a regional hospital, being treated for the injuries they had sustained in the ordeal.
At the time of the invasion, the three family members were asleep in the lower flat of their two-storey building. The businessman told this publication he could not say how many men had entered his home.
The businessman noted, however, that none of the men he saw were masked, and all were armed with guns.
According to the businessman, a steel door had thwarted the bandits attempt to gain access into the house, hence they entered the home via a window in the kitchen.
The bandits reportedly used a ‘wallaba post’ to smash the glass window and force in the grill of the bottom flat of the building; and when they realised that they were going to enter the home, the family fled to the upper flat, securing a metal door on the way. However, upon entering the home, the men discharged several rounds on the door to break it open.
“When I see that, we decide to go in the bedroom and lock up; and then I said, ‘No, they gon come in here and kill us’. So we run out before they reach upstairs, and open the veranda grill, and my wife and son, they jump straight in the neighbour yard.”
Nursing a permanent injury, Rakish Harold could not do likewise, and as he was climbing down a post, he sustained a gunshot injury. Nevertheless, he headed for the fence, and scaled it as shots rang out behind him. He made it to a neighbour’s house, where he sought refuge and was taken to the Police Station.
The businessman explained that he was taken to the Springlands Police Station drenched in blood, leaving the bandits ransacking his house.
“When I reach the station I see about six Police, all of them with long guns, and they wanted me to give them my name and address and to tell them what happen, and the men still in my house. I tell them we got transportation to take them…”
He said his neighbour then took him to the Skeldon Hospital and ensured that he was being attended to before returning to the Police station by which time the officers were ready to go.
However, by the time the Police arrived on the scene the men had escaped.
Meanwhile, his wife Nadira Harold sustained a fractured leg when she jumped off the veranda. She was taken to the Skeldon Hospital. They were both subsequently transferred to the New Amsterdam Hospital.
Rakish Harold was later discharged while his wife was admitted. Their son Andrew Harold, who was also injured when he jumped from the veranda, was treated at the Skeldon Hospital and sent away.
This publication understands that the couple returned from the US three weeks ago with plans to expand their business.
Police in a release said that three shotgun-toting bandits, early Monday morning, entered the home of a Corentyne family and carted off an undisclosed amount of cash and gold jewellery, during which the family of three fled their home by jumping off a shed.
According to the police release, among the items removed from the home was the surveillance footage from sixteen cameras which are strategically placed around the house.
Police are investigating the incident.
