Anika Kwanza, the woman who survived a vicious attack in which her husband was killed on Monday night, has stopped speaking.
Relatives of the 29-year-old yesterday told the T&T Guardian as of yesterday, the woman had stopped responding to them verbally and instead was now answering questions by shaking her head to indicate either “negative” or “positive”, making communication difficult.
Relatives said they believed the shock of the incident might have only “just hit her,” hence the delayed reaction. Kwanza’s relatives also expressed concern that following Monday’s attack no police officers were stationed at her bedside in the event the killers wanted to attack her again.
Following a telephone conversation with the T&T Guardian, however, head of the Port-of-Spain Division, Snr Supt McDonald Jacob, said he would assign an officer to Kwanza’s bedside immediately.
He added officers from the Victim and Support Unit would also visit the woman and her two children, who witnessed the brutal attack, and offer them counseling.
Kwanza was beaten with a broken concrete block by her attackers and suffered injuries to both arms, losing part of a finger on her left hand. She also suffered injuries to the left side of her abdomen, right side of her face and the back of her head.
According to police reports, Anthony Henry, 35, Kwanza, 29, and their two children, aged seven and four, had just returned to their home at Casablanca Road, Cascade, around 9.30 pm, when they were jumped by two men armed with guns and cutlasses.
The men beat the couple, robbed them, beat Kwanza with the broken concrete block, shot Henry and as he lay dying and smashed in his face with a concrete block. All this they did while the children stood by watching.
During the attack, police attached to the Port-of-Spain Division responded to reports from residents. But along the way two of their SUVs crashed near the Cascade River Gardens apartment complex and one officer fractured his arm. The remaining officers managed to arrive at the scene to find the attackers still rummaging through the couple’s belongings.
The killers shot at the police and ran off into the hills. Police called for air support but the national security helicopter could not help the police find the killers who used the knowledge of the hilly terrain to escape. Henry and Kwanza were taken to hospital but Henry was pronounced dead on arrival.
Relatives believe the attack was a robbery that went wrong but the police’s theory is that the killers went after the family because Henry was involved in the drug trade.