(Trinidad Express) Tragedy struck a Central couple yesterday when their only two children were shot and killed during a home invasion.
The siblings are Vishal Chitbahal, 25, and his 23-year-old sister Vishanie Chitbahal.
The incident occurred at Sand Road, Windsor Park, California, around 5 a.m.
Their parents Tony and Ann Chitbahal were not physically hurt but the memory of watching the gunmen murder her children will torment mom Ann for the rest of her life, the mother said.
In a media interview yesterday, Ann Chitbahal said she awoke early in the morning to make aloo pies for her son to take to work.
“I heard a knock on the door and when I opened it a man pushed me aside. I started to scream and run back and then the man pushed me on the bed,” she said.
Three men wearing dark clothing, one armed with a firearm, entered the house.
Vishanie Chitbahal, a sales clerk, heard her mother’s screams and ran to her bedroom.
“That was when one of them shouted ‘that’s she, that’s she’s’ and another one said ‘yes’. Then the man with the gun pointed it at her head and shot her at close range in the middle of her forehead,” Tony Chitbahal said.
The gunshots woke the couple’s son who was asleep in another bedroom.
Tony Chitbahal, 56, said: “They turned to run and same time my son opened the door and they turn around, shot him in the chest, and ran out.”
The daughter died at the scene, police said. Her brother, who worked with a contractor, was pronounced dead at the Couva District Hospital.
Mom in a total mess
Ann Chitbahal, 47, said her children had not been working since the stay at home order came into effect.
“But the boss called my son out to work and I got up early to make aloo pies for him. My children are good, they are quiet and had no enemies. This was not a robbery. They asked if that was my daughter,” she said.
She said her daughter was involved in a relationship but never complained of being unhappy. “Her boyfriend bought a pool yesterday and was coming to pick her up today,” she said.
The parents said their lives have been shattered by the murders. “These children are our life. What are we going to do now? We lost everything,” the mother cried.
A relative told the Express, “The mother is in a total mess. She hasn’t stopped bawling and crying yet. That was her only two children.”
The relative said the siblings were quiet and were active members of the village temple.
Police said nothing was taken from the family’s home and the motive was yet to be determined.
Closed circuit television camera footage from a house in the area showed the men running out of the house and into a waiting vehicle.
A resident, who spoke to the Express yesterday, said he heard the gunshots but did not go outside to investigate.
He said when dawn broke “I came outside and heard what happened. This is a very sad day for this village. It was not a robbery. Why did they kill these two children?”
