[UPDATED] Gunmen drive over shot man in Penal attack — 'My son dead, it hurting me'

A LATE-NIGHT attack on a Penal family has left a man not only nursing a gunshot wound, but also a broken heart, after the intruders also shot and killed his son on March 24. In their haste to escape, the intruders drove over the man's son as he lay on the ground bleeding from gunshot wounds.

When Newsday arrived at the crime scene in Batchyia Trace, hours after the incident, Sheldon Harripersad was sitting on two concrete blocks which were perched on top of two old tyres in the garage. As he spoke on his cellphone, Harripersad began weeping, telling the caller he had lost his son and had no money for his funeral.

Harripersad showed Newsday his bandaged left hand saying he had just returned from the hospital where he was treated for a gunshot wound.

"Listen nah, I have no money for no funeral," he told the caller on his cellphone. After ending the call, he told Newsday, "My son dead and that real hurting meh." He said his son Brandon was 34 and the elder of his two children.

"Is one son that I have. One daughter too. That was my best friend, that fella. I teach him how to work. I teach him to work excavators, I teach him to work backhoe."

Harripersad said he and his son worked together for about eight years before Brandon got a job at a nearby hardware as a lorryman.

Harripersad said he provided for his family working as a labourer, adding that he recently spent all of his savings to enrol his 24-year-old daughter into a school to study accounting.

Relating the incident, Harripersad said he was asleep when he heard Brandon suddenly shouting for help sometime around 11 pm on March 24. On leaving his bedroom and entering the unlit garage, Harripersad said he was attacked by one of the assailants. Harripersad said he tried to fight the intruder but was shot in his hand.

"If I had a gun, police would have locked me up this morning because I would have shot them dead."

Police investigators later told Newsday that Harripersad's wife Karla – who was not at home when Newsday visited – was in the house when the incident took place.

Police sources said a relative, in a statement given to investigators, said Brandon was heard screaming out, "Allyuh, they come to kill meh." This was followed by gunshots outside the house.

After opening the front door to investigate, the relative told police that two masked men pushed their way into the house demanding money and jewellery.

The relative said the intruders demanded the keys to the family's car, a Mazda 3. Harripersad said he was ordered to open the front gate and that was when he saw his son lying on the ground "covered in blood."

He said that while the gunmen were not looking, he ran out into the road and into nearby bushes where he hid. The gunmen got into the car and in making their escape, they drove the vehicle over Brandon's body as he lay bleeding.

Harripersad said he was uncertain if his son was already dead when the gunmen drove the car over him. A report was made to police and the district medical officer later ordered Brandon's body removed to the Forensic Science Centre in St James.

Harripersad said he was taken to the Siparia District Health Facility in an ambulance before being transferred to the San Fernando General Hospital. He said he returned home around 9 am on March 25, and at that time, he had not yet spoken with his wife and daughter as they were still at the Forensic Science Centre having viewed and identified his son's body.

An elderly neighbour recalled hearing Harripersad's wife and daughter as both came running to her home begging for help.

"All I heard was somebody bawling 'Nanny! Nanny! Nanny!' When I came out it was Karla. The daughter was saying, 'They kill meh brother'."

The neighbour said she last saw Brandon playing music loudly and dancing at the front of his house around 3 pm on March 24.

"To be honest with you, I just feeling like I could bawl and cry. That is all I could tell you...knowing Brandon from a little boy. My heart is hurting," the neighbour said.

Other villagers also expressed shock at the murder, describing the Harripersad family as humble and hard-working folks who kept to themselves. One villager, clearly enraged, shouted, "We in a state of emergency and this f--king thing still happening?"

Harripersad said neither he nor his relatives had ever received any threats or had any altercation with anyone.

He said that on March 23, he hit another vehicle with his car at a grocery on Sunrees Road, but did not believe this is what prompted the deadly attack. He said he had come to an amicable agreement with the owner to compensate him for the minor damage done to the car.

Villagers complained of a non-functioning street light near the Harripersad home adding that had that light been working it may have been a deterrent. Police sources said that no arrests were made and investigations are ongoing. Up to time of publication, the murder toll stood at 93.

Editor's Note: This is an update to an earlier story published online and which can be read via the link: https://newsday.co.tt/2025/03/25/penal-man-murdered-father-shot-at-home/