Family shot in car, one dead in San Fernando

TWO brothers, ages seven and three, escaped death inside a car last night when gunmen opened fire injuring their mother and killing one of the boys’ father.

The boys were not hit, however doctors had to remove splinters they received when the windscreen and door glasses shattered in the hail of bullets as they sat in the back seat of the family’s blue Nissan Bluebird car.

Dead is Ryan Alexander, 27, who lived at Rushworth Street in San Fernando. His girlfriend, Andrea Yusuff, 25, and their three-year-old son were up to today receiving medical care at the San Fernando general hospital.

Yusuff’s other son from a previous relationship had minor injuries and is staying with relatives.

The shooting happened at about 11 pm at Yusuff’s home at Green Hill in Tarodale, near Ste Madeleine.

Two gunmen walked to the front of the car and opened fire. Alexander was in the driver’s seat and Yusuff, the front passenger, with the children at the back.

"It had a little lime by the house for Mother’s Day and they were about to pull out when the gunmen began shooting. Ryan was shot about 11 times and his son was right behind him standing up. I don’t know how that child was not shot," said a friend of the family.

"The killers ran off. Andrea was unable to move but called out to her sons asking if they were okay. This is traumatic for the children especially having to see their parents covered in blood," he told Newsday.

When residents heard the shots, they ran to safety and had to restrain a male relative who wanted to go outdoors to save the family from the killers.

"Thank God they held him back because he too would have been a dead man," the man said.

A resident took the family to the hospital where, doctors said, Alexander died on arrival.

Alexander worked at a bar in Princes Town.

Police from Homicide Bureau Region III and Ste Madeleine are investigating.