(Trinidad Guardian) It was only a month ago that 43-year-old Louis Joseph celebrated the birth of his daughter Louisiana but that joy was short-lived when he was shot dead on Monday night. On Tuesday, the new-born screamed in the arms of relatives as her 20-year-old mother, Kimberly Francis, wept while recalling what an intruder did to her the previous night. “He put his gun on my head and he said, ‘You see you, I will shoot you in your head,’” Francis said.
Police said around 11.50 pm, two men with a gun and a cutlass entered the family’s home at Morne Roche Quarry Road, Williamsville. Joseph, a labourer, was shot in the chest. He ran into a bedroom, collapsed and died. Police believe Joseph was murdered by the same men who stormed his home last July and tied up Francis while he was away. They said the men went to the house in search of something they asked for in July. The police did not specify what the men had gone to the house for on that occasion.
Francis said on Monday night she was woken by a gunshot. As she walked into the living room, she saw Joseph running near the bathroom door with two men in the house. “I ran through the gallery, to the back of the parlour and the one with the cutlass ran after me and he grabbed me at the steps. He brought me back inside and the one with the gun told me to lie in the kitchen.
“He told me put my head down but I kept on raising my head so he put his gun on my head and he said he would shoot me. The one with the cutlass went over to him (Joseph) and mashed his hands. He just lay there and died slowly,” Francis said. Eventually, the bandits ran into the street but returned when Francis cried out for relatives to call an ambulance. At that time, she said, the child woke and began crying. It was only when she screamed out for someone to call the police the men left.
Gasparillo police and Southern Homicide Bureau searched for them but up to late yesterday no one had been held. PC Patrick is continuing investigations.