IN the aftermath of the brutal killing of six-year-old Sean Luke, an eight-year-old boy narrowly escaped death recently when ruthless gunmen entered his home.

During the ordeal, the boy sat weeping silently on his bed in one room, while the gunmen were pumping bullets into his father and uncle in an adjoining bedroom.

The unidentified gunmen, who pretended to be police officers when they broke down the door and entered the house at Diamond Village, San Fernando during the wee hours of the morning, wanted to know from brothers Neville and Regael Sookoo, 34 and 29 years old respectively, about money and drugs.

Both men, although pleading innocence, were shot at point blank range.

The little boy was, however, spared physical injury but not the memory of the terror he witnessed.

Relatives rescued the hysterical child following the nightmare in which his father and uncle were shot and wounded, as he stood at the side of the road in front his home, in a state of shock.

The innocent Standard One student caught in the middle of an all out adult “war” has not been able to attend school since, and is now undergoing counselling.

“I am really worried about him,” said dad, Neville, who is nursing a gunshot wound to his arm and a gun butt to his head.

“He saw so much blood in the house; he heard those gun shots, and I had to beg for his life.

“They wanted to shoot him, too.

“He (the son -- name called) was in my arms fast asleep when they stormed the house.”

Neville, a labourer, is a single parent.

Brother Regael was shot in the shoulder and leg and underwent emergency surgery at the San Fernando General Hospital, where he was warded for a few days.

Neville recalled what happened around 3.45 a.m. that day.

“I didn’t even know someone was in the room,” he related.

“My son and I were sound asleep on the bed.”

According to him, it was a blow from the gun butt to his head that woke him up.

He said a man armed with a gun and flashing his cellphone light was standing over him and asking for money and drugs.

He said his son awoke in fright and began crying because of the dreadful situation.

“I told the man I didn’t know about any drugs and money but he was getting more vex,” Neville continued.

He said as tension built, the bandit turned his attention to his already scared son.

“That’s when I started begging for him,” he added.

Meanwhile, in another room, he said two other armed men were interrogating his brother, Regael, and his wife, Thelma, in similar fashion.

Neville said the other men called out to his attacker, telling him to bring both he and his son over into the room in which they were holding his brother.

“I begged them to leave my son as he was just an innocent child,” he continued. “I told them to carry me alone.”

He said his son, dazed by what was happening around him, began screaming.

But the Sookoo boys had still more to endure.

“My son remained sitting on the bed shaking and crying as the man dragged me over in the next room,” Neville revealed.

He said as his brother and wife lay on the bed, he was ordered to lie down on the ground.

“They made my brother face his wife, they covered her face with a sheet and then they shot Regael. 

They shot Neville a short while later.

“I don’t think God was ready for me, because they kept pointing the gun at me and pulling the trigger, but it just refused to go off again,” Neville added.

“I have to really thank God.”

The bandits, while they found no drugs or money, ripped off Regael’s gold chain, ring and took his cellphone.

The brothers admitted to having received threats on their lives prior to the incident, but never took them seriously.

“This is something we never expected to happen to us,” Neville continued. “The fact that my son could have been injured or killed really worries me.

“These bandits are just going around doing as they wish.”

One suspect was later held by the police but released.

“Somebody is protecting these bandits who go around pretending to be police just to shoot people,” Neville added

However, the brothers are grateful to cops from the Southern Division who responded to subsequent threats to their lives.

“The response was good and they are now patrolling the area regularly,” Neville ended.