Enterprise residents hopeless after businesswoman’s murder: ‘We numb to crime’

ENTERPRISE residents say after the latest murder in their community, where businesswoman Bibi Zamilla Swamber was killed at her home, they are numb to crime.

When Newsday visited the area on March 6, residents lamented the crime situation and the helplessness they felt because of it.

They complained that neither the police nor the government have provided solutions to crime and there was very little they could do to protect themselves. They are left waiting to see who will become the next victim, Newsday was told.

One resident on Dass Trace said when he read about the murder he was shocked. But, he said, living among criminals and as targets of crime were par for the course in the community.

“I grew up here from a young age. Nothing surprises me here again.

“When I was younger there were a lot of people on drugs in the area.

“I remember I was outside and I saw police pull up on a spranger. There was a gravel patch nearby and he threw a bag of crack in the gravel patch to get away from the police. They didn’t even do anything to him.”

A shop owner and a patron on the Southern Main Road also spoke to Newsday. They said crime would always continue.

“For crime to stop you have to deal with the big boys and that would not happen, so we are just wasting time talking about reducing crime,” the patron said.

“I have gotten numb to all of this killing. They killed a man right here, in front of my shop, a couple years ago. Hearing about a murder now is like waking up and drinking a cup of coffee,” the shop owner said.

A resident on Dass Trace Extension spoke to Newsday from the safety of the locked burglar-proofed entrance of her home. She said she was worried about the crime in the area, but there was nothing people could do about it.

“It’s terrible, that’s all I can say. We just have to wait and watch. With this incident that happened, we know that they are targeting elderly people.”

Other residents echoed her sentiment.

“It just is what it is,” said the Dass Trace resident. “You just have to keep yourself safe.”

The shop owner said he does not worry about it.

“If we do that we wouldn’t do anything and all. All my hair will fall out.”

Chaguanas East MP Vandanna Mohit described Chaguanas as a town crippled by fear, crime and a blatant absence of security in a press release on March 6, which condemned the murder.

“This heinous act comes even as the government has imposed a so-called State of Emergency, allegedly to quell the crime crisis.

“Yet, in the heart of this very emergency, criminals remain emboldened while law-abiding citizens continue to be butchered like sacrificial lambs.”

She questioned the government’s emergency plan and described the emergency measures put in place as “nothing more than an illusion of control.”

“Bibi Zamilla Swamber was more than just another name on a police report, she was a pillar of the Chaguanas business community – a hardworking citizen who contributed to the economy and provided employment for others.

“Her death is not just a loss to her family but a devastating blow to the very fabric of our community, which is being shredded by unchecked criminality.”

She said communities, businesses and families cannot function in fear. She said the community is under constant threat of violence and is in a constant state of mourning.

“The people of Chaguanas East demand immediate, tangible action.

“The police service must be given the resources and manpower to actively dismantle the criminal networks terrorising this nation.”

Police reports said at around 2.45 on March 4, Swamber’s relatives went to her home on Dass Branch Trace Extension, but when they got there they noticed that her door was ajar.

When they entered the house they found her body face down in the living room.

Her hands and feet were tied with electrical cords. A pink towel covered her face. The house was also ransacked.

Police are working on the theory she was the victim of a home invasion.

Police told Newsday that autopsy reports revealed she died from asphyxia due to ligature strangulation. Police believe she was strangled with some sort of cord or cloth.