Dying man told wife: ‘Take care of yourself and the children’

As her husband lay on the ground outside a supermarket bleeding from a gunshot to his chest, with his dying breath he told her, “I think I am going. I love you. Take care of yourself and the children.”

That memory will haunt Heather Sedeno-Walker for the rest of her life.

Her husband, Jamie Walker, 39, an ex-soldier, was shot to death outside We Supermarket, Cocoyea Village, San Fernando.

The shooting followed an argument over where the family's car, in which Walker was the front-seat passenger, was parked.

Three of their four children witnessed their father being killed.

Sedeno-Walker heard the shots which ended his life and rushed to his side, only to see him take his last breath.

Since the shooting, their traumatised children have been at home, unable to go to school.

“We are not hearing anything about the shooter. We were promised counselling by the TTPS (but) nobody ever contacted us. The Children’s Authority visited and a social worker visited my daughter’s school and is putting things in place to counsel her. But apart from that, nothing.”

Sedeno-Walker, a candidate for the People’s National Movement (PNM) in the Oropouche West 2010 general election, said she understands an autopsy on her husband's body was scheduled for October 12.

“But no one told me. So we have no family witnessing the autopsy.”

A shaken Sedeno-Walker said she was driving the family’s car on the evening her husband was killed. Their children, 13, eight and four, were in the back seat. They also have a two-year-old.

She said she had just picked up Walker from work, parked in front of the supermarket, and got out to cross the road to buy barbecue for the family, then return to the supermarket for bread.

“I normally park there, buy the chicken and bread, and then head home. The key was still in the car.”

While ordering their meal, she heard her children screaming and rushed out to see her husband scuffling with another man. She said she told them to move away from the car in which the screaming children were sitting.

She tried to grab her husband and pull him away, she said, but someone watching the scuffle told her the man fighting with her husband had a gun.

As she saw him draw it, “I dived into the pharmacy, and then I heard three shots. I rushed back outside and saw him go down to the ground.

“I asked him if he was all right and he said, 'Yes, I good.'”

Seeing blood on his coverall, she called for an ambulance and was told not to give her husband water, as he requested, but to put a cloth on the wound.

“The officer told me not to touch him. I went over him and he said he was feeling like he could not breathe. Then he said, 'Girl, I feel like I going. I gone. I love you. Take care of yourself and the children.'

"Then he just lie back. I raised up his jersey and saw a bullet hole to the centre of his heart.”

Sedeno-Walker said no one lifted a finger to help her before an ambulance arrived a long time afterwards.

She said her children, who have been crying constantly for their father, told her the other man was arguing with her husband to move the car.

“I don’t know if he was coming out to move the car, because the key was still in the ignition, but the children told me the (other man) poked him in the face, and that was when he retaliated.”

Responding to accusations that he was smoking weed, Sedeno-Walker replied, “It does not matter if he was smoking weed or cocaine – the (other man) had no right to shoot my husband.

Having lost her husband, and the children their father, she said, “It is so unfair. They are lying. I just had enough. I was there. I know the truth. That was uncalled for. If the authority don’t want to see that, the public saw it. I have had enough. I am just leaving it in God’s hands.”

Joint owner of the We Supermarket Naigum Joseph, councillor for Springvale/Paradise in the San Fernando City Corporation , told Newsday on Wednesday he could not say anything about the incident. “because there is an ongoing investigation. I am co-operating with the police.”

He said video footage of the incident has been handed over to the police. The shooter has reportedly given them a statement.

Funeral arrangements for Walker have been tentatively set for Sunday at Guide’s Funeral Home, Coffee Street, San Fernando.