The
father said he called the Vigilance Police Station
on his cellular phone but the line was busy. He
then called the head of the Community Policing
Group in the area and the police arrived shortly
after.
Sookra
said he lifted his daughter to his car, which was
parked under the house, but it had mechanical
problems and she was transferred to a police
vehicle.
He
said he went with his two wounded children and the
police vehicle drove into the Vigilance Police
Station compound where an officer checked his
daughter for a pulse and shook his head in pity.
They
were then transported to the city hospital where
Christine died while receiving medical attention.
Her
brother Ryan witnessed doctors checking his sister
and pronouncing her dead.
"Me
son sit right there and saw when they wrapped her
up...he keeps crying all the time," the
grieving father said.
Three
bullets fired from under the house by the
attackers pierced the wood floor, the bed and
ceiling without hitting any of the seven occupants
lying on the floor, Sookra said.
"I
don't know how God save us and the bullets passed
right through the mattress and the roof," he
said.
Jagdesh,
16, the eldest child, said he saw when his sister
fell after she was shot but thought she was only
lying low to shelter from the bullets.
"I
thought she was going to lie down on the floor and
I pushing she and telling she go under the
bed," he said.
He
said that after they realised his sister was not
moving, his father said she had been shot and
started crying for help.
Just
then, his other brother, Ryan, called out that he
too was shot, and Jagdesh said he ran for a cup of
water to wet their wounds.
"She
(was) just...breathing and stopping, breathe and
stop and she (jerking) up every few minutes or so,
and (we) take a cloth (her white baby shawl) and
wrapped up she head."
Kishore
Mohamed said he was forced to give the men his
fortnightly salary, which he had collected just
Friday afternoon.
He
said he and his wife Marai Nagamootoo and their
two daughters were at home sleeping and were
aroused by rapid gunfire in the neighbourhood.
Minutes after, their window panes were shattered
and their door kicked open.
Four
men entered the house, placed Mohamed to sit and
interrogated him, ordering him to hand over money
and jewellery.
The
porter said he handed them everything he had
without hesitation and the men left.
A
neighbour said he too was awakened by the gunshots
at Sookra's house and later heard a man calling
out.
"I
heard `Inside! Inside! Inside!' but with much
aggression. As the sound came closer to my house,
I hear 'Is phantom - open up."
He
said that after he went into hiding in his dimly
lit, grilled and tightly secured house, he heard
the men breaking his louvre window, and another
who appeared to be the group's mastermind,
insisting that they should not shoot.
"The
person continuously was adamant that he doesn't
want shooting," while another kept insisting
that "somebody" had to be inside the
house, he said.
The
men left and went next door to Mohamed's.
The
neighbour said he saw four men armed with heavy
guns and outfitted in black attack the family
while another stood guard on the road with a long
gun.
He
watched them kick down the neighbour's door and
witnessed the robbery in the house, lit by a lamp,
before they ran on a dam at the back.
"The
way they were dressed, one would have been easily
tempted to believe that they were the (black
clothes) police", the villager said.
He
said the men stood on the dam "bitterly
arguing among themselves for about five minutes as
to who did it (the murder) and why. One got the
impression that it was unintentional but criminals
are heartless people."
Her
teacher said Christine would occasionally visit
his home for help with her schoolwork, and
described her as "very mannerly, very
respectful, cooperative, very ambitious in terms
of schoolwork and outstandingly beautiful."
Distraught
residents of Coldingen are calling on the
government to establish a police station and run
electricity lights in the village.
"This
area needs police protection and
electricity...there is need for police
patrol," an elderly resident said adding,
"What is the point having all these telephone
lines and no basic utilities?"
A
neighbour, Surujpaul Budhu, cried bitterly as he
related what he saw and heard.
"At
around 12:30, me and my wife were asleep and we
heard some gunshots...I heard one thief say 'Wake
the man up'. My wife Rosy started screaming and I
locked her mouth with my hand and out the light in
my house and we lie down flat."
Budhu's
tears fell faster as he recalled just lying in his
house, unable to do anything to save his neighbour.
"I
couldn't do anything Ryan called out to me. He
said `Uncle' three times. I'm afraid...next thing
I heard, police come, then I heard Christine
died." He said he too travelled to the
hospital with his neighbour.
Sookra
said that just a few days ago, he and Christine
fixed her bicycle, and his wife took her shopping
- all in preparation for school Monday.
He
said that for the past two weeks, his only
daughter had been sleeping on the bed with him and
his wife while her visiting cousins used her bed.
Crying
bitterly, he said he is scared of losing his wife
too as he feels the tragedy is too much for her to
handle.
"My
wife is a stroke case...I begging God and me
daughter who died to take care of her mother, two
brothers and father."
The
mother, Angela Sookra, cried uncontrollably and
complained of feeling "too weak to say
anything."
A
few minutes later, she broke down and tearfully
talked about her only daughter and last child.
"She
was a loving girl...Look how me daughter small, me
daughter ain't even enjoy life...I see me daughter
life lef she body, and I can't do nothing fuh help
she."
Nearly
two hours before the Coldingen attack, residents
of neighbouring Enterprise called police after
they saw two strange men acting suspiciously in
the village at around 22:40 hrs.
Police
said the men started running after they spotted a
police patrol and one of them was arrested after
the officers gave chase.
Further
investigation led to the questioning of a woman at
Dazzel Housing Scheme, a few villages away, but
while police were on their way to her house a
gunman fired shots and escaped.
Police
said they searched the house and found 10 grams of
cannabis.
They
said they arrested an illegal French national and
the woman.
East
Coast residents are in fear of heavily armed gangs
following the crime wave of 2002-2003.
Gunmen
10 days ago launched a deadly attack on the
Appanna family at Non Pariel.
In
that attack, a 14-year-old girl hid under her bed
while bandits stabbed her father, Davechand
Appanna, 45, to death. Her mother Hemrajie, 42,
was left unconscious from a fractured skull and
stab wounds.
Residents
from that village have been fleeing since that
attack and have called for a police outpost in the
area.
Days
after, gunmen shot and killed a young policeman
during a police operation in Buxton.
US
Embassy
Sunday,
August 29th 2004