Resident: Slain Barataria mother was 'respectable, quiet'

SHERMELL Roberts' neighbours claims she received multiple death threats before she was gunned down outside her Kitchener Avenue home in Barataria on May 13. The neighbour said the threats had not been reported to police.

Police reports said the North Eastern Division Task Force were patrolling the area around 4.05pm on May 13, when they received word of a shooting.

When the officers arrived at the scene they saw Roberts, 36, with both feet outside of her red Honda Civic and her body slumped over to the passenger's side with gunshot wounds to the head.

Roberts showed signs of life and was transported to the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex, where she died while receiving treatment.

A neighbour described Roberts and her teenage children as respectable and quiet.

“She was a good person and if you know her two sons, they are very very nice children, which means they were raised well.”

The neighbour was upset about the picture that social media and some traditional media had been using online to report the murder – a picture of Roberts sitting, sipping a beverage.

“That picture does not reflect who she was and (the picture) could have been taken over ten years ago.”

They added, “Just this weekend she had a little gathering and I’m passing and saying ‘What kind of old and slow music is that?'”

The resident also told Newsday that Roberts confided in them roughly a year ago about a legal dispute she faced over property.

They said, “She told me about the case and that she received multiple death threats.

“I told her she should report them, but she never really took them on.”

When Newsday visited the area on May 14, the neighbourhood was quiet.

Another resident said, “This is a kind of retirement settlement, it is normally very peaceful.

“This is the first time something like this has happened here. They (the community) are real quiet people, nice people. I don’t understand where this came from.”

The resident described the state of crime in Trinidad and Tobago as horrible.

“Like it is easier to get a job to kill someone, than it is to get a real job.”