Cutlass men attack Freeport family

A PREGNANT Freeport woman had to snatch her two young sons and run from six cutlass-wielding men who stormed her family’s home on Friday night.

According to the woman, who will not be identified as she fears for her safety, around 8.30pm a car pulled up in front of their house and six men came out.

She said she and her sister-in-law fled to a bedroom with the two children, a five-year-old and a 17-month-old.

A female family friend who was sitting in her car in the driveway sped off as several of the men tried to get into her car. The men smashed the windscreen and windows of one of the family’s cars before driving off. Closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage from the incident has racked up thousands of views and shares on social media.

“I was changing my older son after his shower and my sister-in-law was holding my baby and speaking to her friend and my brother in front the house when I heard shouting and ran outside,” the woman recounted. “I saw the men running into the garage area and my sister-in-law began screaming because they were just running into the yard with cutlasses in their hands.”

She said she grabbed her sister-in-law and pushed her with the baby into a bedroom and locked the door.

“I don’t know how we were able to get away from them, everybody was screaming and they were shouting and saying they will kill everybody.”

She said earlier in the day, the driver of the car which the men came in, began cursing at one of her brothers as he was driving past him on the road.

“He said the fella ask him, ‘Why you watching me? You want to start a war?’ My brother said he was just driving past, he wasn’t really taking him on at that time. Now we realise that in his mind nobody is allowed to pass and even look at him, he must feel he is some kind of God.”

While the woman was hiding, the assailants chased after her brothers and several young men who were at the house playing video games. Fortunately no one was hurt during the incident.

“If they had caught up with any one of us, I have no doubt they would have chopped to kill, why else would you run into a house with a cutlass?”

She said the same group ran into a bar in the community earlier in the day, also armed with cutlasses. She said CCTV footage of that incident is being handed over to police.

This attack comes days after a massive police town hall meeting next door to the family’s home as police met residents over concerns of a crime surge in the area.

Insp Dane James, who heads the Freeport police station said the driver and ringleader of the group is well-known to police as he was recently detained in connection with a string of robberies in the community. He was released without charge after 48 hours. James said police are working to arrest the men and they will be charged with malicious damage among other charges.