Hours after murdering Frieda Goodridge outside her business on Saturday, a Mt Hope man telephoned the victim's mother but before he could say his piece she ended the conversation.
According to police reports, around 9 am Goodridge, of Second Drive, Mt D'Or, and her 15-year-old son, whose identity is being withheld to protect him, had just arrived at Goodridge's business place, Afeisha's Minimart, along Mt Hope Road, Champs Fleurs, when a gunman approached and opened fire on Goodridge, injuring her son in the process.
Speaking with the T&T Guardian yesterday at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, Goodridge's mother, Shelly-Ann Paris, said the man who is believed to be responsible for her daughter's death called her from a blocked number and after identifying himself she ended the call. The man, she said, has been a visitor at her home and was on several occasions reported to the Barataria Police Station by Goodridge for being abusive.
"I want to know how can he sit down to eat or drink knowing he did someone that," Paris said when asked what she wanted to say to her daughter's killer.
Paris said she last spoke with her daughter the day before she was killed.
She added that her daughter wanted to know when was the man's next court appearance for a matter which she did not disclose.
Paris said her daughter, who was more of a friend to her, was a straightforward person adding that she heard the volley of gunshots that claimed her first-born's life as the business was not too far from her home.
"I used to tell my daughter that man will kill you because she had known all his business and I used to tell her that person will kill you because I loose an aunt when I was small just like that.
“Just on Friday she called me about the same individual’s court matter and I went to find out about it for her. I don't know what matter but I know he has a matter on September 28.
“In Barataria Police Station she made more than one report and some time ago he had kicked her down a drain and she had made police lock him up," Paris sad of the strained relationship the man and her daughter had.
To other women in abusive relationships she had this message: "Please don't take that. If you are in a relationship like that better you walk away, talk to somebody, take advice because I have been talking, talking, talking."
To abusive men, Paris said their victims were the daughters and sisters of other people and she questioned how would they feel if another man was beating their mother, or sister or another female relative.