“The police acted very irresponsibly.

“My 56-year-old asthmatic mother has not been the same since.

“She cannot sleep; she is all nerves.

“That incident has affected everyone in our house and has changed our lives.”

The mother of two told TnT Mirror that in the wee hours of the morning, the cops had surrounded the downstairs apartment in which five adults, a teenager, two children and a baby who at the time was just two weeks old, all lay sound asleep.

She went on to recall the drama, which she said, involved “about 10 officers” and which lasted about 30 minutes, but somehow seemed like eternity to the family.

She said three police vehicles -- two cars and a van -- were parked outside in front her house.

“We were suddenly awakened by the banging on the kitchen door and the sliding window in the living room,” she recalled.

“The first thing came to mind was that it was bandits breaking in the house and so I called the police.”

She said she peeped outside to the back and saw men dressed in black shining a “big torchlight”.

“It seemed as if they were finally getting in the house and I called the cops again to tell them the bandits were coming in,” she explained.

She said except for her two children, 11 and 12 years old, who thankfully slept through it all, it was not the same for her mother, two sisters, a brother, a baby and a sister in-law.

She said the family went into shock.

“My sister-in-law hid her two-week old baby under her jersey and with my mother and sisters ran through a side door and into the road for safety,” she added.

“My brother hid under a bed.

“But I thought someone had to face the ‘bandits’ and so I decided it would be me.

“After all, my children were inside still sleeping and I was not leaving them.”

The officers carrying long guns stormed into the house.

The woman said the first armed man to enter the house was of African descent dressed in a red jersey and blue jeans with a folder in his hand.

“Then came three others of East Indian descent including a woman,” she added.

According to her, it was only then that she saw “POLICE” written across the chest of the officers.

“No one could have identified in the dark that it was police who had surrounded the house,” she explained.

“Why at least one of them didn’t come to the front where a light is always on?” she asked.

She said that in a very aggressive mood, the police officers asked for a certain woman (name called).

“I told them she lived next door,” she added.

She said the four officers all hurried back outside, “without even saying sorry”.

“And along with their colleagues, they went next door where they effected two arrests,” she continued.

Meantime, her mother who had run to the home of the same “wanted” neighbours screaming out for help, ended up being injured and was given first aid by the same woman who the officers came to arrest.

The female officer reportedly allowed the arrested woman to clean and dress her neighbour’s bleeding arm, before taking away both she and a male relative to the Princes Town Police Station.

“It was the only kind gesture coming from the cops,” she said.

The matriarch of the family explained to Mirror that in her confused state of mind, she ran into her neighbour’s yard and forced her hand through the louvres in an attempt to get their attention.

The glass pane sliced through her lower arm.

“I didn’t even know I got cut; I was so frightened when I ran over there,” she stated.

“I wanted to wake up somebody because I thought it was bandits in our house.”

The daughter noted that when she rang them, thinking bandits were outside her house, officers at the Princes Town Police Station never responded to her cries for help.

“Instead, I heard over the wireless that I (name called) had reported a robbery in progress,” she said.

“The officers simply responded that they were carrying out an exercise.”

Six hours later, however, she said she visited the Princes Town Police Station, where she made an official report.

“One Cpl. Duntin took the report,” she revealed.

“I saw the officers involved all sitting there comfortably, while our lives were being turned upside down.”

She later made official complaints to the Police Complaints Unit and to the Ombudsman.

The family remains “very annoyed” up to this day.

“We have always been law-abiding citizens and should have been spared this nonsense,” she insisted.

“The cops were reckless in their approach and totally embarrassed us by their action.

“The first impression a person got in the village was that this family was involved in things negative.”

The family members are determined that the matter must not die without them receiving justice.

“The police damaged our property and traumatised innocent people and the State must pay for it,” the spokeswoman for the family ended.

Both the victims and the two suspects live in a downstairs apartment next door to each other.

Both houses have parlours located at the front of the buildings.