Seventeen-year-old Amy Babwah grabbed her sleeping baby and hid behind a wardrobe as gunmen pumped multiple bullets into her husband’s body after storming their Marabella home on Monday night.
The teenage mom and her seven-month-old baby girl escaped injury but her 35-year-old husband, Selwyn John, died in the living room of their Bayshore home.
John was killed one day after his neighbour, Dixon Richards, 22, who lived a few houses away from him, was shot dead in front his home.
Richards was found by his mother bleeding from gunshot wounds at their doorsteps on Sunday.
The murders have left residents, who believe the two shootings could be linked to a turf war, fearful for their lives.
Police reports said two gunmen accosted John shortly after 11 pm.
John’s father, Kelvin Ramcharan, 57, who lives close by said he heard about 12 shots.
In an interview yesterday, Ramcharan said: “He (John) now bath and gone inside. He hear the door kick and he come out the bedroom and they offload shots in he.
“I hear it was three men. I now done bathe and change meh clothes and I sit down eating. I hear about 12 shots. I came outside and I see his wife running coming. She was crying and bawling.”
She left the baby inside the house and came for help, he added.
When he got to the house, Ramcharan said he saw John lying on his stomach. “They did not ask him nothing they just buss it on him,” said Ramcharan.
Babwah grabbed the baby who was asleep on the bed just five feet away from the living room. “The mother tell me when he (John) come out and she hear the gunshot she gone behind the wardrobe with the baby,” said the father.
Babwah’s two-year-old son who also lives with them was by his grandmother at the time of the shooting. Ramcharan did not know Babwah’s whereabouts since she left with the police after the shooting.
John also has two other children—a nine-year-old boy and eight-year-old girl —from a previous relationship.
Admitting his son had a criminal past and previously sold drugs, Ramcharan said he did not know whether he was still involved in illegal activities.
Ramcharan did not share a close relationship with his son but he said he did not deserve the way he met his death.
He said John was also charged for being involved with Babwah because she was a minor. In November 2014 John claimed he was kidnapped and taken to Venezuela when he appeared in the San Fernando Magistrates’ Court for missing his court date, burning Babwah’s clothes and assaulting three police officers.
Concerned about the crime situation, Ramcharan asked: “A killing Sunday and Monday. Who next? What next?
Also expressing his concern, another resident said: “We believe is the same people who do the shooting Sunday do this. Somebody wants to control the scene. The man (John) was just trying to survive.”
John’s sister-in-law, Shadah John, called for frequent police patrols in the area.
She claimed the police only patrol one area of the community. An autopsy said John was shot seven times. San Fernando police are investigating.