(Trinidad Express) A Barrackpore family has been ripped apart by violence after the husband chopped his wife then apparently drank a poisonous substance and died on Monday night.
Wife Vashti Suraj-Sookram, 30, is hospitalised for multiple chop wounds to the right wrist, left arm and back. Police found the body of husband David Sookram, 38, a mechanic with a trucking company, outside the house at Kanhai Road South.
Officers were told that after attacking his wife with a cutlass, Sookram drank a clear white liquid from a clear plastic bottle, then ran into an open area at the back of the house where he collapsed.
The couple had been married for 14 years and had two children, ages 12 and eight, who were left traumatised in the aftermath of the incident, relatives at the home told media yesterday.
Suraj-Sookram’s sister, Maureen Rampersad, said the family was left confused and traumatised because there were never any previous violent incidents with the couple, only arguments which they would resolve.
She said Sookram would drink alcohol occasionally.
Rampersad said they had an argument on Thursday, and Sookram left the home but was in contact with his children.
“Even if he was quarrelling, you would think it is a joke because of the way he would say it. He was a nice person like that,” she said.
She said the family does not know when he entered the house, but they heard screams around 10 p.m.
She said they did not immediately rush over because Suraj-Sookram would scream when she spotted insects.
“If she saw a spider, she screaming. By the time my mother come out the bedroom, they just see him chopping her. My mother tried taking away the cutlass. My mother fall down with him. Then he got up and he continued chopping her (Suraj-Sookram).
“After that, he ran to the back of the house. Nobody knew where he went because we were focusing on her because of the amount of blood. Blood was everywhere.”
Rampersad said her sister complained of pains and was losing consciousness, and the Emergency Health Services ambulance responded within approximately 35 to 40 minutes.
So that Suraj-Sookram would not lose consciousness, the paramedics spoke with her continuously.
When police officers came to the house, they searched the back of the premises where they found Sookram.
A district medical officer pronounced him dead at the scene, and his body was removed to the San Fernando mortuary for an autopsy pending Covid-19 testing.
Barrackpore police officers Cpl Suliman, PCs Babwah and Singh responded, and Cpl Babwah is continuing investigations.
