Accusing police of fabricating a story to cover up his mother Sona Lalloo’s death, Jamere Lalloo says the officer who shot her must account for his irresponsible action. Lalloo, 80, died on an operating table at the San Fernando General Hospital at 11.15 pm Tuesday after being shot in the head.
A police report stated that a police constable attached to the South Western Division Task Force was chasing a man with a silver object resembling a gun along Johnson Trace around 7.45 pm Monday. While climbing over a wire fence it allegedly collapsed, causing the officer to fall.
When his service pistol hit the ground, the officer claimed it accidentally discharged. The bullet travelled approximately 50 metres, pierced the plywood of Lalloo’s bedroom and struck her on the side of her head. Showing the bullet hole in their Rancho Quemado home yesterday, Jamere said he had a strong feeling his mother could not survive the injury.
“Doctors told us it was 50/50. They said to expect anything,” Jamere said. His emotions were both sorrow and anger as he said the police’s account of his mother’s death was untrue. He denied police were chasing any gunmen, saying he was lying in his hammock when he saw the officer approaching. He said the fence that the officer claimed he fell from had collapsed some time ago.
Jamere said he has already given a report to senior South Western Division officers and his sisters would decide whether they would approach the Police Complaints Authority.
Up until yesterday, the offending officer remained on active police duty and has been receiving sympathy from his colleagues and the Police Social Welfare Association. He is expected to receive counselling but Jamere said no one has approached his family to deal with their trauma.
He said he was not angry or afraid but was focused on stemming the bleeding. He said the officer helped wrap Lalloo’s head with a piece of cloth but it took almost an hour for an ambulance to come and take her to the Siparia District Health Facility.
The death hurt even more as Jamere recounted the sacrifices his mother made for her ten children, saying they grew up poor with no electricity or running water. He said his mother would toil for hours, harvesting cocoa and coffee in the estates just to feed them.
“She now started to enjoy life, now started to get her little pension so she could buy what she wanted.
“We did not grow up with a TV, we had no current. Just the other day she was telling me that she now started to enjoy life. Look how she come and died now.
“If she had died in her bed sick or old, I could have understood that but look how she just got shot. We must get justice for this.”