Gunman robs, terrorises Providence teen

A mother and her teenage daughter are now traumatised after they were terrorised by a lone gunman in the wee hours

One of the rooms that the gunman ransacked

of Tuesday morning at their Providence, East Bank Demerara, home. According to reports, Elisabeth Thomas was at her Lot 856 New Housing Scheme, Providence home with her 15-year-old daughter when the lone gunman removed three louvers from a window to gain entry into her home. Thomas told this newspaper at about 02:00h, her husband, who is a sand truck operator, left home to go to the sandpit. She said that she heard an unusual sound and was awoken just to see a man jumping over her bedroom wall. “I ask who is it and the man said “don’t get up or I gon shoot you” and he come down from the wall,” she stated. The woman added that at the time she was on the bottom of a double bunk bed, while her daughter was fast asleep on the top bunk. According to the traumatised woman, the gunman ordered the teenager out of her bed to join her mother on the bottom bunk. “He said he want all the money and gold, and that he has two persons waiting outside. So he hold my daughter, wrap her hair around his hand and pulling and dragging her. He was cuffing and choking her too, asking for money,” the woman said. Thomas told Guyana Times that she handed over the valuables she had in the house in fear for her daughter’s life. These included two cellular phones, a laptop, jewellery and a quantity of cash. The woman further stated that she got on her knees and begged the bandit not harm her daughter. “He put us to lie on the floor and lock the room door then run out through the back door,” she told this newspaper. According to Thomas, the entire incident lasted for about 30 minutes. However, she could not say whether the man indeed had accomplices waiting outside since she and her daughter remained in the room for about 20 minutes before they came out and alerted neighbours of the robbery. The incident has left the woman and her teenage daughter traumatised and scared for their safety. Moreover, Thomas claimed that this is not the first time a robbery has occurred in the area. She noted that there are no safety measures for residents there, pointing out that street lights are not even installed in the area.