Charlieville homeowner fights back – Bandit killed during home invasion

A Charlieville landlord fought back against burglars in a home invasion, leaving one of the bandits dead and another injured on July 22.

The landlord lives on the first floor of a heavily burglar-proofed property at Caroni Savannah Road and rents the ground floor of his home to two businesses.

Around 3.10 am on July 22, four men climbed the wall of his back yard, before scaling another wall at the side of the property to reach a bedroom window.

They entered the house through the window and woke the landlord’s elderly mother.

On hearing the commotion, the man took out his licensed gun and confronted the men, firing several shots.

One bandit was shot in the head and died at the scene and another was injured but managed to escape.

The bandits, scared by the landlord’s surprise attack, ran out of the house, jumped through a window onto a neighbour’s roof and then survived a ten-foot drop into the yard.

They then scrambled over an eight-foot-tall gate before escaping in a waiting car parked a street away near the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway.

Chaguanas mayor Faaiq Mohammed was visiting the homeowner when Newsday arrived.

He said the authorities “can’t seem to get a handle on things,” and added the landlord’s decision to fight back sent a serious message to criminals.

“(The landlord) protected his family. It’s seven of them in this house, including a woman in her eighties. When the bandits came into the house, fortunately they didn’t attack her, but imagine if they did. It could have been a different interview we are having.

“(The bandits) knocked on the wrong door, or should I say the right door, this morning and a message was sent to them and the criminal elements within Chaguanas.”

The incident has fuelled an outcry by business owners, who say crime in the area is out of control.

Several of them spoke with Newsday, but did so on the condition of anonymity, as they said they were fearful for their lives.

An employee at one of the businesses on the compound told Newsday, “The crime situation in this country is really out of hand.”

The employee said discussions would be held on additional security measures, as the compound had seen its share of violent acts.

“We all are very concerned, because this establishment in particular has had a history with bandits running in here and attacking workers and the owners. So it is a concern.”

Pointing to the outcome of the home invasion, the employee said law-abiding citizens should be allowed to defend themselves.

“The landlord, thankfully, he had a licensed firearm and he used it in the right context and right frame of mind. This is the type of news that's supposed to be going about, not bandits getting away freely.”

The employee said the in-your-face policing plan announced by Deputy Police Commissioner Junior Benjamin recently, while commendable, was not enough.

“You can step up police patrols and all that, but at the end of the day, police are not there when the bandit is inside your place with a gun. The police are not faster than a speeding bullet. You can’t pick up your phone and call the police fast enough when the bandit is in your establishment, so you still need to have something to defend yourself with before they reach.”

The employee suggested there were no plans to close the establishment despite the repeated acts of crime in the area and on the compound.

“At the end of the day, life has to go on. We just have to be very vigilant and try our best to adjust to when these situations happen.”

Another business owner echoed similar sentiments about the state of crime in the area, saying it had always been an issue, but it had escalated significantly in recent years.

“The crime has gotten out of control in the Charlieville area. This business has been operating for over 30 years and we have been robbed multiple times over the years.
"My father was subjected to a gun butt to his head. It's very frightful. You don't know who is next.”

She said additional security measures such as “click-to-enter" doors provided little comfort.

“On a daily basis, you feel fear every minute. You're concerned about who is really going to walk in. Even when you have the click system, you don't know who is really the person who coming to rob you and who is the person who genuinely coming to purchase. So the click system is not really going to protect you in any way.

“Every day that we come here we know it's a risk, and we just take it day by day. We try to be vigilant, in the sense that we watch often to see how the area looks. Any strange people in the area, we would be looking at them very closely here.
"It's terrifying. It's a daily thing.”

A man who lives nearby, on the same compound as his business place, said the gunshots woke his family and left his children scared and crying.

He said for crime to be reduced, police must continuously target the known drug offenders in the area.

He said he continued to see “questionable characters” liming at a nearby building that police had raided  in the past.

Another business owner, who gave her name only as Dianne, said she had been a victim of crime on multiple occasions.

“A few years ago they broke in here minutes to four in the morning. We ended up literally face to face with the men in here. My husband fought with them and they left. Then the year after, my child was a newborn at the time, and they came to break in again and they took about 40 tanks of gas.

“So it's not just what happened on Monday (July 22) morning, and it's not the first time. It has been going on for some time.”

She said she subsequently applied for a firearm user’s licence (FUL) but had not yet got any response.

She said it FUL applications by members of the business community should be treated with the same priority as those of police and prison officers.

She said she understood the argument against arming all citizens, but she felt particular consideration should be given to business owners who lived and worked on the same compound.

“Not every house next to each other needs to have (a gun). Not every single citizen in the country needs to have one, but at least business owners. At least let us get preference, if you don’t want everyone to have a gun.

“(The bandits) would see us more as a target because they think we have cash and we have assets. We can’t be waiting ten years just to be told, ‘You're not going to get a firearm.’"

The business owner whose children were left scared and crying agreed.

“We should get preference when it comes to gun ownership, but right now it’s only a chosen few who getting their FUL.”

Mohammed agreed with the suggestion and said an FUL application should be an easy process.

“I don’t know why this process is such a lengthy one. It’s a process where you feel like this could never happen. It’s like playing the lotto, you don’t know if you could win or get an FUL. It shouldn’t be like that.”

National Security Minister Fitzgerald Hinds was asked at a media briefing on July 22 about the possibility of business owners’ FUL applications being given priority.

He said while it was a matter for the Police Commissioner to address, he believed some consideration could be given to the proposal.

Several of the business owners said Assaraf Street – used by the bandits to escape – was a problem.

Assaraf Street connects Caroni Savannah Road to the Sir Solomon Hochoy Highway.

The business owners all expressed concern that it had been used as a getaway route on more than one occasion.

“They need to have police stationed there instead of them parking up by the fire station with a speed gun.”

Mohammed said he was looking at creative measures to address those concerns, including a barrier which could be lowered at night to prevent access to the highway.