Lusignan residents reliving the fear of 2008

THOSE WHO FORGET THE PAST ARE CONDEMNED TO REPEAT IT...........

A gang of marauding (African) gunmen created havoc in the East Coast Demerara village of Lusignan, killing 11 persons, including five children, in one of the deadliest attacks in recent years.
The gunmen struck at around 02:00 hours yesterday, simultaneously kicking down the doors of five houses, slaughtering even children as they lay sleeping in their beds.

Among the dead are Shazam Mohamed; Clarence Thomas; his son, Ron, 11; daughter, Vanessa 12; Mohandai Gourdat, 32; her two children: Seegobind, four-years-old, and Seegopaul Harilall, 10; Shalem Baksh, 52; Rooplall Seecharan, 56; his daughter, Raywattie Ramsingh, 11; and his wife, Dhanrajie, called Sister, 52.

The injured are Howard Thomas, 19, Nadir Mohamed, 48, and Roberto Thomas, five.
Most of the dead were shot in their stomachs and were left lying in pools of blood that covered most of the floors of their modest homes.
The Police Ballistic Laboratory has since matched shells matched eighteen shells found at the scene of Minister Satyadeow Sawh's murder, the murder of the MMC security guards at Two Brothers gas station, Brumell and Scott at Agricola and the attack at Canal No. Two in 2007.
Speaking to this newspaper, one of the survivors of yesterday’s massacre, Bibi Zalika Baksh, whose husband, Shalem, was killed, said that at around 02:00 hours they heard the shooting which, she said, started at a house two doors away.

Baksh said that she and her daughter were also under the bed from which her husband was pulled, but the bandits, in their haste, did not see them.
She explained that, before her husband was shot, she attempted to come out from her hiding place to hand over whatever valuables the family had with the hope of saving their lives.
But her indecision probably saved her life and her 14-year-old daughter's.

“I was just hiding in the corner. Ow! Ah couldn't talk, ah couldn't do nothing. They did not see me. Then they say, 'Watch two more deh on de bed. Kill dem! Kill dem',” Mrs. Thomas told this newspaper.
She said that the men shot her sleeping son, Ron, and they then snatched her daughter, Vanessa, from her bed, and although she screamed and begged for her life, she, too, was cold bloodedly gunned down.

She said that she later heard her husband, Nadir Mohamed, groaning and came out from her hiding place, only to see her son, Shazam, lying badly wounded in a pool of blood.
“He call out, 'Ow, mammy, give me some water fuh drink and throw some pon me skin',” Khan recalled.
Noreen Seecharran,
This was brought to the attention of Acting Police Commissioner Henry Greene, who visited the area early yesterday morning and promised a full investigation into the conduct of his ranks.
Many residents expressed horror that the children were not spared.
“Dem nah come fuh rob. Look how dem kill dem pickney while dem sleeping,”