Oropouche widow wants justice for murdered husband

AKEISHA Annmarie Balkissoon, 28, is calling for justice after the murder of her husband, Dwane Kern Saunders of Oropouche.

Saunders, 30, and Balkissoon were walking along Coker Street around 6.40 pm on Sunday.

According to police reports, a vehicle pulled alongside them. An armed, masked man got out, fired several shots at Saunders, then got back into the car, which drove off.

Still traumatised, and steadying herself in the embrace of a friend outside her South Oropouche home on Monday, Balkissoon was baffled as to why anyone would want to kill Saunders.

But she had a message for the people who killed him.

"I wish the same way that my husband died is the same way that they would die. Honestly speaking.

"I will go the distance to get justice for him, because he did not deserve it."

She added that deep in her heart, she knew that "he was never in anything. Never ever. "

She did not know Saunders to have any enemies, but believed a few people envied him because they had a food shop.

"We work like dog in that business. We were now about to start our house."

Balkissoon lamented that the crime situation was terrible.

She and Saunders had been together for ten years. They had no children.

She recalled the events leading up to Saunders' death. On Sundays, the couple normally cleaned and sanitised their shop before opening for business on Monday. They also went to the market.

They were on their way home when the incident happened.

Saunders was holding a bag of food when he was shot.

"He didn't get to eat. He died hungry."

Earlier in the day, Balkissoon prepared a meal of callaloo, stew pork, potato salad and rice for them, but she said Saunders did not want to eat at that time.

Saunders was supposed to help a friend build a wall on Monday.

She remembered walking along the road with Saunders when the vehicle pulled alongside them. A shot was fired from inside, and a man got out and approached them.

Balkissoon said the man told Saunders not to run and he asked the man what this was about.

She said Saunders was shot in the arm.

"I was still there holding his hand. He pushed me away and told me to run."

Balkissoon said she stood still and the man fired another shot at Saunders, hitting him in the throat.

"It's when they did that, is when I ran."

A bullet grazed her foot.

Balkissoon said she ran into a bar, hearing gunshots being fired. She came out when they stopped.

"When I came back, he was covered in blood, and that was it."

Saunders' father Winty Augustus said another relative told him about his death on Sunday. Augustus went to the crime scene but was not told what had happened.

He saw Saunders' body on the ground but police cautioned him that the area was a crime scene.

Augustus said he warned Saunders about the company he kept. But, he added, "He decided his own thing."

Police investigations are ongoing.