Young McKies Hill woman lucky to escape with her life

A young female resident of McKies Hill was fortunate to have escaped with her life after her brother rescued her from the clutches of an attacker last Monday night.

Sherisse Veira, a 20-year-old public servant at the Ministry of Transport and Works, is currently nursing injuries she received to her face {{more}}after being violently beaten by the unknown assailant.

When Veira spoke to SEARCHLIGHT on Wednesday at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital, she disclosed that the incident occurred around 8:30 p.m., while she was washing her brother’s van.

“While I was washing down his van, I saw somebody strange walking coming in the gap. I was alone by the van because I had sent my brother for a bucket of water,” she said.

Feeling uncomfortable, Veira said she hustled to finish washing the side of the van she was working on, so that she could go into the vehicle before the person got to where she was.

“By the time I went to put down the bucket, I noticed the man was swerving towards the van, so I took the bucket and chucked him with it in his chest. By that time, he just said ‘Miss’ and choked me, slammed me on the ground and then give me two box, one on me nose, one in me eye.”

With her voice breaking, she continued: “He proceeded to open my feet and try to rip my pants.”

Bleeding from her eye and nose by that time, Veira said all she could recall is her brother rushing towards her and grabbing her.

“Blood was coming from my eye and from my nose, so with the amount of blood that was coming out I really didn’t study anything else,” said Veira, who at the time of the interview could barely open her right eye.

When SEARCHLIGHT caught up to Andy Veira, Sherisse’s brother, he said he rushed outside to his help his sister when her heard her screaming.

“I see this individual dey on top of Sherisse, have one hand holding she down and another one cuffing she,” the older Veira said.

This caused him to rush his sister’s attacker, causing the man to release her and flee. Veira said he gave chase, but by this time the attacker had run through their neighbour’s yard and scaled a nearby wall.

Sherisse’s mother, Petrona Cozier-Veira, who was present during the interview, further disclosed that the incident happened on a platform belonging to their neighbour, next to their house.

“I was on my bed … looking through the window looking at her, but then I left and I went in the kitchen; that is when the incident occurred, when we heard her screaming – there was a series of screams with a pause in between. I guess that is when he would have struck her.”

Cozier-Veira said when she went outside, she saw her daughter lying in the road bleeding.

She added that the guy leaped over the wall and went down into Paul’s Avenue and that she was told later that night that he was seen running across the St Martin’s Secondary School area.

Describing her daughter’s condition, she said, “Sherisse has a low blood platelet level; that’s what clogged her blood, so with that problem, that is the reason why she bled out so much.”

She then revealed that her daughter had been in an accident a couple years ago that damaged the same eye she was struck in.

“We saw the ear nose and throat specialist yesterday, along with an eye specialist and we were assured that there’s no permanent damage.”

Cozier-Veira, however, said Sherisse remained under observation at the hospital because of her low platelet level.

“Thankfully the bleeding has stopped, but with the X-ray this morning, we’d know if she’s going home or not.”

Sherisse said the nurses had been monitoring her nosebleed, which she said stopped on Tuesday.

“They tell me that the eye bloodshot; I have to do a X-ray on the eye to see if I have any fractured [bones], well on my face, to see if there’s any fracture; other than that they tell me I would be okay,” she said.

Both Andy and Sherisse described the attacker as wearing a black polo shirt with writing on the front, of average height, slim, dark skinned with braided hair and a black hat.

“And he was just a bit bigger than me,” Sherisse added.

The man is also believed to have attacked Josette St Hillaire of Murray’s Village and another woman said to be from the Kingstown Park area. Police are currently investigating. (AS)