After cowering in her bed from the rattling sound of bullets striking her home and the smell of gasoline at her front door, New Grant mother Odessa Constance is now afraid to sleep.
At 3 pm yesterday, Constance, 70, a diabetic patient, was yet to eat a meal for the day as she was traumatised after gunmen attempted to set her Hindustan home on fire with her daughter Rene Dorner, 32, and boyfriend Judah Jackson, 32, of Laventille, asleep inside.
Sitting on her front porch, Constance told the T&T Guardian she was uncomfortable sleeping in her own home, especially since she did not know much about Jackson, a deportee from the United States.
It was around 4.45 am, not too long after Constance awoke, that she saw the shadow of someone on the front porch, then smelt gas.
“I called out to Rene and said ‘Like it have somebody in the gallery’ and I asked ‘Where Ras (Jackson)? I thought it was Ras opening the door but then she said Ras was in bed. So I said ‘Girl, like somebody come to burn down the house,” Constance said.
Afraid to go outside, she said she remained in her room while Jackson went down the back steps and saw a fire. But Jackson was shot in the foot and quickly retreated to the kitchen where he fell.
“He called out to Rene so she came and raised his foot and put pressure on it. I called the police, who told me to call the ambulance when I was done.
“I was in my room the whole time because I hearing the rattling like rain falling on galvanise. She said they came inside the house, I don’t know but like when they (gunmen) heard me calling the police, they ran and left.”
A neighbour rushed across and was taking Jackson to the hospital before they met the ambulance along the way. The neighbour also put out a “channa bomb” which the attackers were planning to throw at the house.
By the time Tableland police arrived, the suspects had already driven off in a Nissan Qashqai SUV, which was later intercepted along the Uriah Butler Highway near the Monroe Road Flyover, Chaguanas.
Although two recently discharged officers from the Special Forces Unit of the T&T Defence Force were held for the shooting within two hours of the incident, Constance remains traumatised.
She said Jackson stayed with them sometimes and used to live in the US but she never saw him interfere with anyone. She said two weeks ago, someone attempted to steal her daughter’s car. Her daughter was at the San Fernando General Hospital with Jackson yesterday evening but she (Rene) was afraid to return home, Constance said.