A handyman is battling for his life after he was chopped at least 12 times during a home invasion on Sunday morning at his Angoy’s Avenue, Berbice home.
The injured man has been identified as 30-year-old Rene Anthony Juman of Lot 162 Angoy’s Avenue New Amsterdam, Region Six (East Berbice-Corentyne). He is now nursing a fractured skull after he was chopped to his head and a broken shoulder.
Four of his front teeth were also knocked out by the bandits. Based on information received, at approximately 01:45h, two men entered the house through a door that was left open.
At the home later on Sunday, the injured man’s father, 50-year-old Mohamed Ishmael explained that on Saturday, his son went to his workplace to collect his wages and then returned home. However, owing to the heat, the young man fell asleep in the hammock leaving the door open.
The men entered the premises by scaling a side fence; then they walked up the stairway and climbed onto the verandah’s roof to make their way into the verandah.
Juman was awakened by the men who immediately started to assault him with a crow bar. The father explained that he heard strange sounds and as he was about to investigate, he too was attacked.
“One reach in the bedroom and choked me and then the other one came in and said, ‘We don’t want him, let’s go for the mother’,” Ishmael recounted, noting that his wife was taking in all that was happening around her.
Ishmael, who is currently undergoing dialysis treatment, explained that the intruders left him in the bedroom and went to his wife’s room. The bandits reportedly used a crowbar to break open the door to get access to the man’s wife, Bibi Ali. She received one lash to the head as they demanded cash and other valuables.
“They didn’t take anything; all they ask my wife for is for the money. We had no money, according to my wife. I really don’t deal with money because of my sickness and I don’t see too well,” Ishmael noted.
According to the former mechanic, at the time of the home invasion, there were five smartphones in the house which were visible, but the bandits did not take any.
Juman, who had his salary in his possession at the time of the attack, was not robbed of the money. In addition, the gold chain he was wearing was not taken.
The entire ordeal lasted about 30 minutes, Ishmael reported. He told Guyana Times that the two armed men were wearing masks, but he was able to recognise one of them from his voice.
“After they recognised like my son is dead – because he fall down flat and remained there – apparently, the tall one panic and he jump on the sink and get away, but before, he called the short one by his name and that is how my wife recognised the other one,” Ishmael further related.
The bandits are said to be residents of the community. Up to press time, Police had not made any arrest.
Meanwhile, the severely injured man was taken to the New Amsterdam Hospital, but the family was told that x-rays could not be done on him, given the lack of films.
This situation, his father stated, forced his wife to demand that her son be discharged and taken to a private medical facility in Georgetown, but he was later taken to the Georgetown Public Hospital.
When contacted, Director of Regional Health Services, Jevaughn Stephen explained that doctors were trying to stabilise the injured man before transferring him to the Georgetown Public Hospital for treatment, but family members were impatient.
Juman remains in the Intensive Care Unit at the Georgetown Public Hospital.
