GRANNY ESCAPES

Even as both soldiers were being placed under arrest at the side of the Uriah Butler Highway, a 70-year-old grandmother was thanking the Almighty as she recalled the horror of a volley of gunshots being fired at her home when the ex-soldiers invaded, intent on not only committing murder but also burning down her humble abode.

Facing the possibility of a bullet through her body or dying a slow, agonising death by fire, the woman told Newsday she kept her composure and used a cell phone to contact police when_she observed through a glass door, the intruders dousing her gallery with gasoline and igniting a ‘channa bomb’ (a crude homemade explosive device). After, the intruders opened fire hitting the woman’s daughter’s boyfriend in his upper left leg. “I never hear gunshots so in my entire life,” a shaken Odessa Constance said as she sat in the very gallery where hours earlier the ex-soldiers stood in Nagee Road, Hindustan, New Grant.

“Look at my age. I tell you I hear about 30 shots. All up the road they heard the shots. Is God who saved me this morning. Innocent people could have been dead. The house could have burnt and you would have only found my ashes here this morning.” _The homemade bomb left at the bottom of the back stairs failed to explode and as a result, the gas-soaked gallery was not ignited. Constance told Newsday the house, which is 59 years old, would have been destroyed._“None of us would have survived.” Police reported that Judah Jackson, 32, also called Judah Buchoon, a recent deportee from the United States, was shot in the leg.

He was rushed to Princes Town District Health Facility before being transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital for further treatment. Newsday understands that Jackson has since discharged himself. Police recovered several spent shells in the area.

The two former special forces soldiers, one who held the rank of Corporal and with 18 years service and the other, a Lance Corporal with 14 years service, were arrested in connection with the incident. A Nissan Qashqai SUV was intercepted on the northbound lane of the Uriah Butler Highway near Munroe Road Flyover in Chaguanas. Inside, both ex-soldiers were found and immediately handcuffed and made to sit on the grass off the highway surrounded by heavily armed policemen.

A search of the SUV yielded several semi-automatic pistols, a Mac-11 machine-gun and several rounds of ammunition. Police said that at about 4.45 am yesterday, Constance, her daughter Renee Pixie Dorner, 32, and Jackson were asleep when Jackson heard a noise and went outside to check._ He was confronted by two men and following several loud explosions, was found suffering a gunshot wound to the leg. The men escaped in two vehicles - a Nissan Qashqai and a Lexus.

Police received a report and an All Point Bulletin (APB) was issued at about 6.30 am. PCs Khan and Kissoon of the Highway Patrol who were on static duty in the area, intercepted the vehicle after observing that it fitted the description given. The firearms included a Mac-11 machine-gun with six rounds of 9.9 mm ammunition and three magazines; one Glock .40 calibre pistol with three magazines and 32 rounds of ammunition; one Luger pistol with 20 rounds of .9 mm ammunition and one Springfield XD pistol with 13 rounds of .9 mm ammunition. The number plate PDE 2100, which was observed on the vehicle when they left the scene, was found among others lying on the back seat of the vehicle which has since been impounded..

Also assisting in the operation yesterday were Snr Supt Nanan, Supt Singh, Insp Harry, Sgt Doodnath and Cpl Sooknanan along with officers of the Southern and Central Divisions.

Police are however still looking for the Lexus vehicle. Newsday learnt that a close female friend of one of the ex soldiers, who visited the Chaguanas Police Station yesterday afternoon, was arrested after police searched her and found_seven rounds of ammunition.

_ Constance yesterday pointed to bloodstains on the floor as she said her house was a war zone. In the gallery there was an _empty plastic bottle, which contained the gasoline, stuffed into a plastic bag.

The vinyl on the gallery floor was slippery from gas which was emptied on the floor and cushions which were soaked with gas had to be thrown outside._Constance said she was still in her bed when she observed a shadow in the gallery and raised an alarm.

“I see someone come to the front door. I_ see the shadow through the glass door, so I called out to my daughter and told her someone was in the gallery.” Constance said she asked Dorner for Jackson and was told that he was in bed with her (Dorner).

“I told her someone was in the house and by the time I say that I smelled gas and said ‘someone come to burn down the house’.” “I used my cellular phone which I sleep with to call police.

What I thought at first was fire crackers turned out to be gunshots.

It was gunshots all over the place. Gunshots like I never heard before,” she said. Constance said she knew very little of her daughter’s boyfriend (Jackson) but added he originally lived in Morvant/ Laventille but moved in with her daughter on his return from the United States.