(Trinidad Express) “They killed my children for nothing.”
These were the words of mother of five Anisa Mohammed, who lost four of her children when gunmen stormed their house at Heights of Guanapo, Arima, and killed siblings Faith Peterkin, ten; Arianna Peterkin, 14; Shane Peterkin, 17; and Tiffany Peterkin, 19, early on Thursday morning.
The shooting also resulted in five other people suffering gunshot injuries, among them two related minors aged 14 and 17.
The other victims were identified as Christian Stephen, 18; James Mohammed, 25; and Mohammed’s surviving daughter, Shenika Peterkin, 21.
The attack took place at the family’s small wooden home, located off La Retreat Extension Road, Arima.
Stephen and James Mohammed were treated at the Arima Hospital and discharged.
Shenika Peterkin was awaiting surgery last night.
Mohammed spoke exclusively with TV6 News on Friday.
Crying as she spoke, Mohammed said she did not know why her family was ambushed.
She dismissed a post on social media that her son, Shane, was the target of the three killers who ambushed the family because he had beaten and robbed an elderly man recently.
“My son never hurt nobody with no gun butt,” she said. “I am now seeing these dotish people on social media saying my child rob people, but you can ask anyone. I didn’t grow them up so because me and their father would do without to make sure they had.”
She recalled what happened that morning.
She and her husband, Shawn Peterkin, were sleeping in another room, and “twenty-six minutes past 12, I was sleeping and I (start) hearing gunshots”.
She said she and her husband immediately got up.
“I (look) into my daughter’s room and was only seeing sparks,” she said.
She said she and her husband were frozen in fear as they saw a “shadow run past the house and jump over a fence.
“My big daughter, Shenika, run up to me and say they shoot we. She had a gunshot in her back. When I run out now, I see my son (Shane Peterkin) on his back with a hole in his chest. I could not have done any¬thing as I could see no more.”
Mohammed said that in the darkness, she realised that her son, Shane, was already dead.
“I peeped in the girls’ bedroom and I ran outside as nobody was moving,” the grieving mother sobbed. “It seemed like when the gunman come into the room, they shot Shane first. Arianna got shot after.
The gunmen then shot her daughter Faith, Mohammed said.
“I was told she got up and started looking around and they shot her again, and when Arianna bawl out, they realised she was still alive and like they just emptied the gun on Ari,” she said. “The gunman left then as the gun jammed.”
Children were innocent
Mohammed maintained that her children were innocent.
“The children did nothing to deserve this, yuh know. They eh do nothing. When we hearing the gunshots, we were hearing the children real making noise while they were shooting them,” she said through tears.
She remembered her children.
“Tiffany. She eh like to do nothing. She just like to sit down and be on her phone whole day. She liked to be on TikTok. You ask Tiffany to come and do this, Tiffany vex. She mouth long, long, long; she eh want to do nothing,” she said.
“Ariana? Well, Arianna is miss attitude. She always giving me attitude. And they say that’s my twin.”
“They killed my children for nothing,” Mohammed said. “I cannot even eat nothing because every time I go to eat, I am seeing my children’s faces. How am I going to cope with that every day, knowing my children are not here.
Mohammed said her children always came first.
“I never studied hair or shoes or nails because as we get money, it was groceries, the children school items and that was what we were doing, so when something like this happen now, I have to ask myself why,” she said.
“My children died sleeping inside a house where they were supposed to be safe. We could not have even helped them, their father could not have helped them,” she said.
She acknowledged statements made about the incident by both Prime Minister Dr Keith Rowley and Leader of the Opposition Kamla Persad-Bissessar.
“Don’t matter how much they do, how much they say or how much they try to do, cannot bring back my children. I worked and I sacrificed for my children,” she said.
She said even if the police arrested and charged people with killing her children, “I will always be the one to lose.”
