2 dead, 2 wounded in Arima – MOM KILLED WITH CHILD IN LAP

A GUNMAN entered a house and without warning, shot and killed two of the occupants – one of whom was a pregnant mother of two who was shot while her son was sitting in her lap, on Thursday. Two other young people were also shot but survived.

The gruesome attack occurred around 9.30 pm in a wooden shack at Zone Eight, Mt Zion Road, Arima. Dead are Amy Walcott, 21, who was nine-months pregnant and 16-year-old Roshan Ali, a student of Valencia High School. Ali was a friend of the family who was visiting for a lime at the time. While Walcott died at the scene, Ali succumbed to his injuries while being treated at Arima Hospital.

Wounded in the incident were Walcott's boyfriend Daniel Alibocas, 18, who was shot in the chest and hand as he attempted to flee, and his 13-year-old brother Shamir Bridgemohan was shot in the hand. The brothers were warded at Arima Hospital both in stable condition up to press time.

The Arima killings plus a double-murder in Diego Martin which took place also on Thursday night, brought to nine the number of people murdered in the past week. The murder toll up up to press time on Friday was 571.

A Newsday team visited Mt Zion Road on Friday only to find the street deserted and people generally very reluctant to speak about the mayhem and bloodshed which had taken place hours earlier.

A relative of Alibocas who made clear he did not want to be identified, told Newsday the group was liming at the front of the house before they all decided to go inside. Not too long after, the relatives said, the gunman entered the one-bedroom home and opened fire. He shot Bridgemohan first with the teen being shot through his palm as he raised his hands to try and shield his face from the bullets.

“When Daniel heard the shots, he jumped up and then he was shot in the chest and hand as everybody just started to run,” the relative said.

The relative added that Walcott was then shot even as her young son sat in her lap. The child escaped unhurt even as his mother slumped back in the chair she was sitting on and died. The relative revealed that when police arrived at the scene, they found the child still in the lap of his dead mother.

One of the officers took the child from off his mother's lap and handed him over to another relative as crime scene investigators moved in to process the scene. The schoolboy, who lay on the floor gasping for air, the relative said, was taken away to hospital.

“This area is very dangerous. So even before this happened, you always had to be careful when you're coming and going,” the relative said.

The relative said that Walcott's family asked police if she could have been taken to hospital so surgery could be done to try and save her unborn son's life, but police said since Walcott was already dead at the scene, her body could only be removed on the district medical officer's signed instruction.

The officers also said they were not trained to perform such surgeries even in emergency cases.

The relative said that on Christmas Day, a man was shot near Alibocas's home and that he (Alibocas) had told Walcott things were about to get "hot" in the area and that she should return to her home which is not in the Mt Zion area.

Newsday then checked at nearby houses to see if any of the residents would be willing to be interviewed. A neighbour who also asked not to be identified, described Walcott as a respectful young woman who took care of her children. The neighbour claimed there were tensions between a relative of Walcott and certain people from Mt Zion Road.

Other residents who saw the interview, came out of their homes to voice their frustration at crime in the country.

One man said, "is madness in this place yes, they just killed four people on Wednesday on the highway and hours later on Thursday, two people lose their lives in our community. This is now gunman country."

The last work week of the year saw the country – as has been the case for all of 2023 – being gripped by violence. Between Tuesday and Thursday, at least nine murders were committed.

On Tuesday, 63-year-old Harold Sampath was found dead with a gunshot wound to the back of his head at Logie Street in Siparia.

On Wednesday, a brazen daytime shooting incident near Spring Village in Valsayn, saw three men being shot to death and businesswoman Lana Sahadeo also being killed when a stray bullet struck her in the head as she looked out from a window after hearing the gunshots.

Then on Thursday, a man and women were killed in a police-involved shooting in the couple's bedroom in their home in Carapichaima. This is the third police-involved killing in December.

Murders six and seven of the week were pregnant mother of two Amy Walcott and schoolboy Roshan Ali, 16, who were killed in the Mt Zion Road, Arima shooting incident on Thursday.

Also on Thursday, two people were shot to death during a shooting incident in Diego Martin.

Up to press time, no arrest was made in the Walcott and Ali murders and detectives from the Homicide Bureau of Investigations are continuing inquiries.

Editor's Note:

This story was an update to an earlier one which was published online and which can be read below:

At around 9.30 pm, a lone gunman opened fire on a group of people, killing two and injuring two others at Zone Eight, Mt Zion Road, Arima, on Thursday night.

Amy Walcott, 21, was nine months pregnant and died at the scene. Also shot were 16-year-old Valencia high-school student Roshan Ali, 18-year-old Daniel Alibocas and 13-year-old Shamir Bridgmohan.

The three teenagers were taken to the Arima Hospital, where Ali later succumbed to his injuries. Alibocas and Bridgmohan, who were both shot in the hands, are said to be in a stable condition.