In the height of T&T's state of emergency and imposed curfew, Christie Bahal, who survived a cutlass and gun attack, has retained the services of an armed security guard to protect her life. Fearful that the men who chopped and shot her husband Terry Bahal to death will come after her, Bahal said she was not taking any chances with her life, since she has to live for her only child Christopher, 15, who is now fatherless and living in trepidation. Bahal said the state of emergency and curfew imposed 15 days ago by Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar has brought no measure of safety, since the men who took her husband's life have been walking free in the community and monitoring her every move.
"I am living with an uneasy feeling. I am fearful they will come to finish me off when the time is right," said a tearful Bahal at her Todds Road, Caparo home on Tuesday. The men, Bahal said, have been asking questions about her whereabouts. So much so, the 31-year-old woman begged the Government to relocate her to a safer community so she could pick up the pieces of her shattered life. She said she was willing to sell the home her husband had built from scratch. Bahal also questioned the role of the Longdenville police, stating that if they had heeded Terry's complaints several months ago, his death would not have occurred. Terry, 39, was president of the Caparo Valley Farmers' Association and the brother of Dhano Sookoo, president of the Agricultural Society of T&T.
Ambushed
Propping her chopped arm against her chest and speaking for the first time since being discharged from the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex where she was warded for several days, Bahal broke down in tears as she related the last moments she spent with her husband of 16 years. Around 9.15 pm on August 16, the couple pulled up in their driveway after selling produce at the Macoya Wholesale Market. Upon alighting from their vehicle, Bahal said she noticed a shadow at the side of the house. "What I didn't realise was that there were two other men who were wearing masks behind the house. As I stepped forward one ambushed me with a cutlass."
Swinging the blade at her, Bahal said she was chopped on the left side of her head, which floored her. "I started to scream to alert Terry," Bahal recounted, her voice dropping as she spoke. Lying on her back and bleeding profusely, Bahal said another assailant, armed with a cutlass, started beating and swiping his blade at her. "I was chopped across my left hand, which severed the main artery and chipped the bone." The third attacker, a gunman, came over Bahal and kept pulling the trigger, but the gun did not go off. Bahal was rescued when her husband jumped the gunman and they both began to struggle.
Died fighting
As the men fought, Bahal said one of the attackers fired a chop to her husband's head. As a bleeding Terry stumbled, he was gunned down in front of his wife. One bullet struck his chest. Another pierced his forehead. Terry, Bahal said, died fighting to save her. The attackers escaped through a nearby forest after a relative of the Bahals pulled into their driveway on seeing the commotion.
By the time Terry was taken to the Chaguanas Health Facility, he was pronounced dead. The family dog was found dead in the yard. It is believed the animal was beaten to death with a piece of wood. Police believed robbery was the motive for the killing. Still traumatised, Bahal was unsure if she would ever have full use of her disfigured hand to continue her farming business, far less to move on without her husband, who was her pillar of strength and best friend. She also complained that the police had not been informing her of their progress with the case, nor had they been patrolling the area.
Even though Bahal was unable to see the killers' faces, she said the Homicide Division promised to send a sketch artist to her home, but they never came. As a result of the police's poor visibility and the killers monitoring her moves, Bahal said she was forced to hire an armed security guard at an hourly rate of $48. In the last two weeks she has been under constant protection. Bahal said the security bill has amounted to over $20,000 which she was now turning to family members to pay. "My safety, and that of my son is of utmost importance. Even though we are in a state of emergency and curfew I have to protect myself and family. I can't rely on the protective services for help... at least not after what has happened to Terry."
Hounded and killed
In addition to paying the security firm, Bahal said she also purchases her own medication, which is a further strain on her pocket. Since the incident, Sookoo said three men were arrested for questioning, but were released. "Everyone in the community knows who the killers are except the police," said Sookoo. Sookoo said the men were menace to society and repeated offenders. For months, Sookoo said her brother made numerous complaints to the police about threats made to his life, but was not taken seriously.
"If they had acted this would not have happened. My brother was a marked man. He lived in constant fear of his life because he knew what the men were capable of. Eventually he was hounded and killed." Sookoo said Terry's home was broken into several times and personal items belonging to the killers were left behind, which were handed over to the police as evidence. The Bahal's 60-acre farm, located a stone's throw from their home was regularly raided by the men, he said.