Fresh terror on East Coast
-- child shot dead in gun attack
By Shauna Jemmott
A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl was shot dead and her teenage brother wounded when black clothes gunmen sprayed their house with bullets early yesterday morning in a fresh wave of terror on the East Coast Demerara.

Christine's brother, Ryan, 14, was shot in the left hand and admitted to a city hospital where he was reported stable.

Their father, Rhajpaul Sookra, called 'Pally', 42, said they were asleep at around 12:30 hrs yesterday when barking dogs woke him up.

The carpenter contractor said he saw a man dressed in black with a "long gun" standing in front of his yard.

He said he quickly walked through the house, dimly lit by a lamp, and gathered his wife, daughter, two sons and a niece and nephew staying with them, in his bedroom, which he thought was the safest place.

The hail of bullets cracked glass windows and blasted the concrete walls of the house, he related, adding that the shooting lasted for about 20 minutes.

"I told them to lie down...and my daughter was lying on the ground between the bed and the window but raised up to peep," he said.

A bullet hit the child in the head, tearing a portion of the left side, relatives said.

"After she get shot I start call for help...and that was it... the bandits left."

Sookra said no one went to their rescue, as everyone in the neighbourhood was scared of being shot by the gunmen, who later "ran down the street."

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."

In the gun attack, small sections of the decorative concrete front of the painted house were blasted away, windows, curtains, a glass door to the verandah, and the wooden front door were pocked with bullet holes and cracks.

The family's prayer 'altar' used for daily worship was smashed by bullets and broken ornaments were scattered on the floor of the living room. A .762*39 spent shell, used in AK47/M70 rifles was found at the scene.

There were bloodstains, scattered brain tissue and strands of the dead girl's hair plastered on the bedroom wall and ceiling.

Police said they recovered seven .762*39 shells and four 12 gauge cartridges at the scene.

After leaving the Sookra house, the five men attacked two other families not far away, carting off $17,000 cash and jewellery worth $17,000.

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.