A Cunupia family is counting their blessings after a relative was able to kill a cutlass-wielding home invader on Tuesday morning.
This is the second time the family has fallen victim to a home invasion but with the house now stained by death, they are considering moving once again.
Ishrafeil Ali and his younger brother, Amir, 29, live in two small houses on the same compound in a street off Munroe Road.
Ali, his wife, and four of their children live in one, while their three eldest sons live with Amir and his girlfriend in the other.
Around 12.50 am, Amir was asleep in his bedroom with his girlfriend when they heard a noise and woke up.
When Amir went to check, he was reportedly attacked by a man with a cutlass.
Amir's girlfriend later identified the assailant as Michael Samaroo, a former boyfriend of her mother from about eight years ago.
Amir was able to get the cutlass from the attacker and use it against him. Ali and his eldest son restrained the wounded assailant until the police arrived.
"When my little brother come out, and the scuffle started, the next two little ones (younger of his three sons who live with Amir) come out and them went and knock on the big one (eldest son) door to come out. That's when I hear the noise.
"I was awake and I hear the noise and I come out and ask the little one here (in his house) what make that noise and they said something across there," he told Newsday during a visit to the home on Tuesday.
"I hear like something break and run come by the door, knocked on the door hard, they (his sons) come and open it and when I see the rest of them had the man down on the ground holding him because he trying to fight.
"So I run gone and I hold him down and I tell the little ones and them to go out from there."
He said his wife then contacted the police.
Police said they found Amir lying on a bed, covered in blood, holding a cloth to his chest.
In the bathroom, they found Ali and his son restraining the attacker, who had chops to his legs.
Ali said his brother was badly wounded, and his intestines were hanging out of his abdomen.
An ambulance took Amir to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, where he was warded in stable condition under guard after emergency surgery for several chop wounds.
Samaroo died while undergoing treatment.
Police found a dagger hidden in the waistband of Samaroo's pants. Newsday was told that Samaroo was charged in 2020 for stabbing a man weeks after being on the run from police. A post-mortem was ordered on his body.
Ali and his wife spent the early hours of Tuesday morning mopping up the blood-stained floors of his brother's home, removing soiled clothing and putting the stained mattress on his vehicle to dry so they could protect their youngest children from the gruesome reality of what unfolded earlier that night.
He said he was grateful his brother was able to come out on top in the attack, saying he was fearful of what his children's fate would have been had it gone the other way.
I ain't sleep yet, my wife