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A fun and relaxing evening among friends in Beetham Gardens was shattered by stray bullets on Saturday, leaving a mother of two dead and her family calling for justice.
Sharida Ali, 36, of Kelly Village, Caroni, was fatally struck in the head by a bullet while liming while in the kitchen of a friend’s home on 19th Street, Beetham Gardens.
Police were reportedly chasing bandits who took them along a high-speed chase along the Beetham Highway.
Police said around 6 pm on January 18, two officers from the Tunapuna Criminal Investigation Department (CID) were responding to a report of a robbery in the Arouca Police District.
They said a silver Nissan Note was taken at gunpoint by two suspects.
Police said officers from the Northern Division received a report that the Note had been seen near the Beetham Highway.
Police said the car was intercepted on the eastbound lane of the Beetham Highway.
They said the suspects came out the car and ran in a northern direction into the Beetham Gardens.
Several gunshots were heard and the suspects eventually escaped.
Police said they were later told that a woman was struck by a bullet in a house.
They said they took the woman from the house to the Port of Spain General Hospital, where she died around 6.15 pm while receiving treatment.
PC Felix, Khan, Valentine and Hoyte of the Port of Spain CID (Area East) visited the hospital and conducted enquiries. They then visited the scene and interviewed more people.
[caption id="attachment_1133776" align="alignnone" width="928"] Ayesha Ali mourns her sister Sharida Ali at her home in St Joseph on January 19. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption]
The scene was later processed by PC Samm and Philip who found four spent 9 mm shells and one spent 5.56 shell.
Police said enquiries are ongoing.
Newsday visited 19th Street on January 19 and spoke with Lisa Welch, a friend of Ali and the owner of the house where she was fatally struck.
She said Ali, who was a regular visitor to her home, had been there around 1 pm.
“I had something for her and I told her to come and get it. After that we were just liming.”
Welch and Ali both worked at Cinemas 8 in Trincity Mall and had been long-time friends.
Welch said Ali had just finished speaking to her daughter on the phone when the incident happened.
“The daughter asked her to bring home Rituals and Church’s Chicken, and she say she was leaving in a little while to come home.”
She said sometime after 5 pm, they heard a commotion on the highway and saw men running up the street, followed by the sound of gunshots.
She said her house had more than ten people in it at the time of the incident, including seven children in the living room.
Ali was standing in front of the sink in the kitchen, preparing to burst ice for a drink, while Welch stood a few metres behind her.
Ali’s sister Ayesha Ali was also in the kitchen cooking, a few metres to her right.
[caption id="attachment_1133775" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A Beetham Gardens resident shows where a bullet shattered glass in the house where Sharida Ali was killed on Saturday. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption]
“I didn’t even know the bullet came through the window, is my mister who push me down and out of the way,” Welch said.
“I eventually felt the glass on my hand from when it shattered.”
Newsday saw the bullet hole in the glass of the kitchen window, which was located roughly 20 metres away from the road.
Additionally, there was a bullet hole in her door (directly in front of the living room) and three above the door.
She said, “And the fellas who run out the car escaped. The run straight up the road and out of the Beetham.”
The highway is approximately 40 metres from Welch’s house, while the road is about ten metres from her front door.
Eye-witnesses claimed that soldiers were also at the scene.
During the state of emergency soldiers are granted powers of arrest and joint patrols and exercised are common.
Newsday tried to contact ACP Richard Smith and chief of Defence Staff Darryl Daniel to confirm whether members of the TTDF were at the scene, but was unsuccessful as calls to their cellphones were unanswered.
Welch said it was a neighbour that told police that someone was shot at her home.
She said it took between ten-15 minutes before the police came and took Ali to the hospital.
“She was done dead. I checked her pulse twice and didn’t get anything.”
Welch claimed that the police “dragged” Ali by her hands and feet, moving her from the kitchen of the house to the tray of a police vehicle parked on the highway before taking her to the hospital.
She asked, “How I could get up and go in that kitchen to cook?
“Sharida was the most down-to-earth...everything nice you can describe her as, that is who she was.”
Family remembers loving, hard-working mother
Newsday also visited Sharida’s sister Ayesha at her home in St Joseph on January 19. Still visbily shaken from the incident, she described her sister as a nice person and also recounted the incident.
“It seems like there was an accident or something on the highway and fellas run out.
“Police was behind. I heard about ten or more gunshots.”
She is demanding justice.
“I want justice for my two nieces, (aged 15 and eight).” She, however, does not think justice will be served.
Another close female relative said she plans to file a report with the Police Complaints Authority (PCA) on January 20, as no one from the PCA had contacted them.
Director of the PCA, David West, told Newsday an investigation was launched and it will officially begin on January 20.
The female relative described Ali as a loving, caring and hard-working person who loved her children.
“She didn’t deserve to go the way she go. Her eight year old constantly crying every minute asking for her mother.
“You know how that feeling to this family? It is the most hurtful thing.”
Newsday also contacted deputy Commissioner of Police in charge of operations, Junior Benjamin, for a comment on the incident. However, he said an active investigation was ongoing and he did not have all the facts.
“We will keep the public aware and up to date as the investigation unfolds.”
 
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