…family says calls to 911 went unanswered
A Parfait Harmony family was plunged into a state of trauma after three armed men stormed into their home during the wee hours of Wednesday morning and brutally assaulted them before burglarising their house.
According to information received, the incident occurred at about 02:00hrs at the Parfaite Harmony, West Bank Demerara home, which also houses the family’s Grocery and Hardware store.
Speaking to INews on Wednesday morning was 19-year-old Sachin Persaud, who explained that he lives with his mother, Samantha Persaud,38, father, Naresh Persaud, 43, and his 4-year-old sister.
The University of Guyana (UG) student recalled that he was awoken by two armed and masked men, who kicked in his bedroom door, and dragged him off of his bed before holding him at gunpoint.
“They ushered me to the room where my parents were and my father was lying on the ground, covered, like he was, I don’t know if they were beating him. My sister was on the bed looking on and my mother was on her knees with a big swell on her cheek,” Persaud recounted.
The teenager was then thrown to the ground and ordered to huddle near his family.
Persaud said that the gunmen then began to ransack the house and collected what little money they could find.
“They said you guys don’t have any money. That’s all the money you have? Let’s beat them. Let’s torture them,” the young man recalled.
He said at that point, the men started inquiring from him where the money and jewellery was and when he informed them that the items were not kept in the house, the gunmen became enraged and began to tie him to the bed.
“They told us to close our eyes because they don’t want us to see them…and we didn’t have any money, that’s why my dad was being harassed,” he told INews.
During the ordeal which lasted about an hour, the young Persaud said the men moved on to ransack his closet, and complimented his clothes.
“They wore my clothes from the closet. They complimented me. They said ‘wow, you have nice clothes’. The guy [bandit] pull a shirt and pants on. He took all of my colognes because I had a wide variety on my vanity and he was like ‘wow, do you have people overseas or something?”
The bandits then began to hurry each other up as they were scattered in the house hunting for items of value.
They made good their escape with clothes, colognes, a laptop and other valuables in their possession.
This online publication was told that after the men left, the family attempted to contact the police via 911, but all of their calls went unanswered.
Shortly after, they were able to make contact with the La Grange Police Station.
Inspections at the scene revealed that the bandits gained entry into the home by reportedly sawing through the roof.
When INews made contact with Police “D” Division Commander, Rishi Das for an update on the incident, he said that “ranks are presently at the scene.”
Investigations are ongoing. (Ramona Luthi)
