(Trinidad Guardian) Two years after they were arrested for having in their possession an AK-47 high-powered rifle, 75-year-old Roy Mahabir and his daughter-in-law Sharlene Lawrence, 28, were gunned down on Sunday night.
Police reports indicate that around 11.30 pm a white wagon pulled into the family’s yard on Sampson Street Extension, Cunupia and sounded its horn.
Lawrence, who was attending to her newborn baby inside the house, went outside to see who had pulled up.
Two men dressed in police uniforms asked her something to which she was last heard saying “But alyuh is no police.”
One of the occupants then shot her in her head. Lawrence collapsed on the ground of the porch where she died.
A few seconds after Mahabir ran out of the house and the occupants fired three more shots which also killed him.
The suspects then sped off.
During a visit in the area yesterday, a neighbour said he heard something like fireworks and then saw several police vehicles in the area.
“I hear what I thought was fireworks went off and about 25 minutes after we see police come in. We didn’t hear any commotion or screaming or anything like that. So we didn’t think much about it.”
Another neighbour said he was at his home when he heard the shots.
“I thought it was fireworks then I was like that have to be shots. Then I come outside and ambulance and thing was in the road.”
The neighbour said he believes that the men came looking for another relative.
“Two years ago Sharlene and uncle Roy were home alone when police came and raided the house. They were both locked up for an AK-47 but no one else was arrested so I don’t know if they were killed because of that incident but I feel they came looking for another relative. The relative tried to call Sharlene on her phone to tell her not to go outside when the car pulled up but she didn’t answer her phone in time. I saw her body there. It’s real sad.”
The neighbour said he knew Lawrence for several years and described her as a hardworking mother of two sons.
“She was working at a nearby liquor store, Rhum Runners. She was real loving and kind and loved her children very much. Last year too in March it had a murder by the shop right here. This was a drug block but it shut down for some time now. So I dunno what going on.”
The neighbour said Lawrence’s common-law-husband is said to be very distraught and stressed about the killings.
“I didn’t see him this morning but I heard he’s real taking the murders very hard because he lost his children’s mother, his love who is Sharlene and his father.”
The murdered woman leaves behind a one-month-old son.
