(By Mondale Smith)
“Me okay, me nah frighten,” said Arjune Bhir, aged 10, after evading
marauding gunmen who killed his aunt Mohandai Gourdat, 32, and his two
cousins: Seegobin, four years, and Seegopaul Harilall, aged nine.
Most do not know of this lucky youngster's survival story as his relatives are
seeking to ensure that he is shielded after his horrific ordeal.
Standing quietly at the window of the crowded home, the petite lad recounted
Saturday morning’s events.
He said on Friday night he and his aunt Mohandai as well as Seegobin were in
one of their bedrooms at lot 23 Lusignan.
He said Seegopaul was in the back bedroom. All seemed well and they had no
fears as the community is not known for any major criminal activity.
But that was not to be, as in the wee hours of Saturday morning the angel of
death visited not only his street but also his home.
When it left, three lay dead in their own blood with gaping bullet wounds.
“We been sleeping when me hear a set of noise and me and aunty wake up. She
peeped outside through a hole in the wall and say bandits outside and she turn
on de bedroom light.” That move proved to be her fatal mistake as the gun
toting men let loose a volley of bullets in her direction, shattering the
windows. “Dem start shooting up de windows and de house"
He said his aunt grabbed her two sons and headed for the front of the house.
“She tell we to lie down on the floor and don’t move.” He said seconds
after, he heard angry voices and footsteps coming up the stairway.
“The voices de cussing and saying open de door and when me aunty go to open
de door I run in the backroom and go under the bed.”
There after as he listened, he heard his aunty begging for her life as two
menacing voices asked her, “Where de gold deh?” to which she replied “We
ain’t got gold, we poor.”
He said that the men then moved his aunt to the front bedroom and began
kicking her and then several shots rang out.
“When she get shoot the lil boys dem run to she and then me hear some more
shots.” Then came the deafening sound of silence as his cousins’ screams
and weeping stopped. He also recalled hearing his aunt gasping for
breath.
From where he was hiding he saw a pair of black shiny boots heading to the bed
but his fear kept him quiet. “Me see the black boots and then de man shake
up the sheet and the mattress looking to see if anybody else hiding but
shortly after he walk out de room. “He ain’t see me.”
He said that his thoughts went blank for a while as it all seemed like a bad
dream and then after a few minutes, there was silence . “Me stay under
the bed and then me hear me aunty cell phone ring.” After the constant
ringing went unanswered, the lad said that he crawled out from under the bed
and followed the sound of the phone. However, he aborted the idea after he
stepped into the front bedroom and made the gruesome discovery of his aunt and
cousins lying lifeless in their own blood.
“De phone been ah ring under she belly and so me nah try to take it out and
lil bit after the next cell phone ring and me answer.” It was his uncle on
the phone to whom he relayed the news that his aunt and cousins were shot and
killed. He said that after relaying the news, he went outside where neighbours
were gathering. “Some of them been ah call for me aunty and dem turn and see
me and ask me what happen. From the front porch he again bravely relayed the
story that “the lil boys and me aunty dem dead up here.”
Since then he said “me nah sleep back that night but me does sleep in the
hammock and suh; me nah frighten.”
Trini-based husband loses wife and
children
On Saturday when the lad’s uncle, Rajkumar Harripaul, called Bobby, arrived
at his mother’s house in the same village, he (Bobby) fell in and out of
consciousness as he came to grips with the loss of his wife and sons. He flew
in from Trinidad after departing Guyana last Thursday. “Me been go wuk for
make life better fuh them and now this.” Yesterday, when
Kaieteur News visited his home, there was not a dry eye.
As he stared at a school badge of his four-year-old son, he recalled that he
often had to please his son by telling him that he looked better when he was
dressed in his school clothing than his older brother. He said during his
eleven years of marriage to Rajkumar “we never had any big
problems…no quarrels, no fights.” He said too that when the authorities
visited the area he did not speak with them as he was unconscious. He
has not decided on funeral arrangements just yet but said “words can’t
describe my feelings…ow God where you deh? Is best meh ben stay and dead
with dem too.” He last saw them alive at about 11pm last Thursday before
leaving for the airport. He said his wife had expressed fears about having to
stay alone in the house . He said his only response was that everything gon be
alright…me tell she to go by she mother during the day time and come home at
nights and she was okay with that because we just get the electricity here.”
The family had only moved into the house six months ago.
He says he does not know what lies ahead but stated that he will be cremating
the three together as part of Hindu rites. He does not have any plans of
remaining in the house as it will only bring bad memories and he said “this
thing got everybody scared…a set of people just pack up and move out and
gone away from this village.”
After the shooting, Bobby’s relatives tried their best not to let him know
what had happened until he got home but those efforts were in vain. “Me get
a call ah Trinidad from me brother-in-law and he tell me come home now, that
he book a flight for 7 o’clock but he nah tell me what happen.” He said
the only news he got was that something had happened to his wife. Try as he
might, he missed the flight. “Me buy another ticket and catch a flight
out but before me get here meh friend wife call me and tell me
that me wife and children get murder and that is all me remember till me reach
ah Guyana. "How this could be?" he questioned.
