Ryan died a hero

RYAN Alexander is being hailed a hero in Tarodale for using his body as a shield to protect his girlfriend, Andrea Yusuff, from a hail of bullets on Mother’s Day.

Alexander, 27, died when gunmen fired on the family who were seated in their car at Yusuff’s home at Tarodate, near Ste Madeleine, at about 11 pm. Their children were in the car at the time.

Yesterday, residents hailed Alexander a hero.

“Both parents tried to push the children on the ground in the back seat. Ryan put his hands to the back so that his son would have stayed down.

Ryan threw his body on his girlfriend to prevent her from getting hit when the men were shooting at her. He died a hero,” a resident who requested anonymity said yesterday.

Yusuff, 25, their three-year-old son, and her seven-year-old son from a previous relationship, survived the ordeal.

About five bullets were lodged inside her and doctors removed some, a relative said.

She has since been discharged from the San Fernando General Hospital.

Although the children were not hit, doctors had to remove glass splinters from their body when the windscreen and door glasses shattered in the hail of bullets.

“The little one knows his father died, but we are not sure if he knows what it means. He knows he would not be seeing his father around.

Maybe on the day of the funeral, he would understand a little better. The father and son had a close bond. It is very hard on the family right now,” a relative told Newsday.

The children have not received any counselling.

No one has been arrested for the shooting death and police from Homicide Bureau Region III are investigating.