Family attacked, fighting for their lives

A woman and her parents are fighting for their lives at the San Fernando General Hospital after a man brutally chopped them while at their Santa Flora home. Leslie Forester, 57, his common-law wife Jennifer Alexander, 55, and their daughter Lizann Forester, 30, are in serious condition.

The wrist of the father’s left hand severed, and Alexander has injuries to her head and hands. Lizann has the most injuries.Villagers joined with police and cornered the 40-year-old suspect in another house where he was hiding. Two policemen, acting Insp Kamal Khan and Sgt Winston Smith, in trying to arrest him were injured, but the injuries were non-life-threatening.

One resident told Newsday had it not been for residents and police, the suspect would have killed the trio and return to his home at Guapo, on the outskirts of Point Fortin.At about 8 am, residents heard the scream and contacted police. Off-duty community police, Cpl Keon Smith, an army man and other civilians at a savannah for football training with children, were alerted.

“The mother was in the yard on the ground. Lizann was on a chair unresponsive in the living room and the father, in a bedroom. His wrist was on the ground in the living room,” said a resident.The suspect was still in the house when we arrived.“He was running away with a cutlass in his hands. Other people came and they ran after him.

He went into a house and they cornered him there. Larry Jerome, a soldier named Bristol and another man put the three people in the tray of vans and took them to Siparia health facility.”