Enmore vendor fights for life after brutal bandit attack

Doctors at the Woodlands Hospital are desperately battling to save the life of a 38-year-old greens and grocery vendor, who was attacked and robbed at his Enmore, East Coast Demerara home early yesterday morning.

Vickram Rambacchus

Vickram Rambacchus called ‘Lil Vick’ of 266 Hope West, Enmore, was stabbed several times about his body as he valiantly tried to fight off three bandits who had entered his home and demanded cash and jewellery. His condition is listed as critical but stable. Rambacchus sustained two stabs to his abdomen, both of which punctured his liver, and several other lacerations about his upper body.  This newspaper visited his home yesterday, hours after the incident ,and several relatives and neighbours were gathered, hoping and praying that his condition improves. Rambacchus’ wife Guytrie recalled that she and her husband were sleeping with their three-year-old daughter on a bed in one of the bedrooms when at about 01:45 hours they were awakened by the three bandits who were standing over them. “I can’t tell you how dey come in; if dey sneak in or wha, but two ah dem scramble me husband and one fighting fuh get me baby and ah kick he, and when ah kick he, he go wid de other two and all three ah dem join pon me husband,” the woman told this newspaper. She said that the commotion awoke her adolescent son who was sleeping in another room. The young man ran over and tried to assist his father who was putting up a fierce fight with the intruders. But seeing that the men were armed with knives and were intent on using it, Mrs. Rambacchus advised her son against the course of action he wanted to take. She and her son then retreated into another bedroom with her three-year-old child, while her husband grappled with the bandits. “Nothing nothing, dem nah say nothing,” Guytrie Rambacchus said, when asked if the men said anything during the attack. It was as if the bandits who were all masked were deliberately trying not to give away anything that could betray their identity. They even tried kicking open the door of the bedroom in which the woman and her children were hiding. The woman said that the commotion pierced the silence of the early morning arousing neighbours who left their houses armed with cutlasses and other instruments to render assistance. Sensing that the neighbours were closing in fast, the bandits hurriedly grabbed $65,000 which was on the Rambacchus’ bed head and fled the house, leaving the badly wounded Vickram Rambacchus on the floor. According to his wife, when she came out from the bedroom she was hiding in, Vickram Rambacchus was stumbling out of his room. “He skin went full ah blood and he hustle catch de verandah, panting for breath. By time then we start call fuh assistance fuh carry he to de hospital,” she said.

The Enmore property where the attack occurred

“He really fight, because if you see blood all over de place, even pon de wall,” a relative added. “From wha me see, he whole skin was a pool of blood and me couldn’t ah really see wheh he get bore, but at de side I see like a piece flesh come out or he guts,” Mrs. Rambacchus explained. However, doctors last night announced that he had undergone a successful surgery but was still not out of danger although his condition appeared to be improving. Kaieteur News was told that the men jumped a fence at the back of the Rambaccchus’ yard, convincing neighbours that they were persons who were familiar with the area. They reportedly left behind their three knives, which were later recovered by the police, who combed the area and surrounding villages in search of the perpetrators.