(Trinidad Guardian) A 31-year-old accountant and mother of one was shot and killed by two masked men armed with gun when they invaded her St Albans Quarry Road, Valencia yesterday morning.
John Hood, father of the deceased told Guardian Media that he believed that a relationship that had gone sour was responsible for his daughter’s life.
Hood told Guardian Media that between 8.15 am and 8.30 am yesterday, his daughter Joanne gave him her 18-month-old baby to hold and told him “I am going to make breakfast.”
He said he went downstairs in the gallery of his house and that while there playing with his grandchild, he was approached by two gunmen whose faces were covered with masks.
He said they both pointed their guns at him and announced a hold-up before ordering him inside the house.
“I followed their instructions, holding on to the child very tightly,” he said.
He added: “They asked that I get on the floor, which I did panicking in the process when my daughter Joanne, not realising what was taking place, came down.”
He said the gunmen approached his daughter and asked her for money and jewellery.
With a gun pointing to her head, Hood said they asked him to take the child outside and he was accompanied by one of the gunmen.
“My daughter was asked to lie on the floor and the other gunman stayed with her in the living room. I heard two shots fired, the men left the house on foot and walked away into the nearby forest,” he said.
“I returned inside the house only to see my daughter lying face down in the living room in a pool of blood and two gunshots wounds to her back. She was motionless.”
Hood said he screamed for help.
A relative who lives close by heard the screaming and loud explosion and rushed to the assistance of Hood.
The distraught father told Guardian Media that when the Valencia Police arrived, his daughter was taken by police to the Sangre Grande hospital, where she succumbed to her injuries.
Hood said he believed that the incident was not a robbery but a hit on his daughter, as the gunmen left without taking the jewellery or any money.
He described his daughter as a “very humble and nice child” who frequented the church regularly and never like liming.