(Trinidad Express) A woman used her body as a shield for her younger brother when gunmen began shooting at him Thursday morning.

Onika Dyer, 33, failed to save him and was shot in the back.

Her brother, 24-year-old Kendell Dyer, ran into a bedroom, followed by the suspects. He was shot twice in the chest and died at the scene.

“I just wanted to save my brother. I didn’t want them to kill him. When the men came into the house, all I could think about was saving my brother’s life. I didn’t think about anything else,” Onika said from her hospital bed on Friday.

She was listed in stable condition at the San Fernando General Hospital on Thursday evening.

The shooting occurred around 12.05 a.m.

Dyer, a mason, and his sister were having a pre-Christmas lime at his eldest sister’s house, near his home at Champion Hill, Fifth Company, St Mary’s Village, Moruga.

Dyer was standing on the front porch when a silver Nissan B-15 car pulled up and the occupants began shooting, police said. He ran inside the house, but the two gunmen followed.

Sister Arlene said: “We were liming and Kendell went over by our mom’s house to get two Christmas CDs. But as he reached on the porch a car pulled up and began shooting.

“Kendell began running inside and we saw the men coming. We all began to run, but my sister, Onika, wanted to shield Kendell. She used her body to protect him. She was shot. Kendell ran on the bed when the men found him and killed him.”
His cousin, Rondon Dyer, and two friends who were inside the house escaped unhurt.

Relatives said Dyer was an honest man, who was looking forward to the Christmas holidays.

“He was a good brother. He was not in any trouble and he was a hard-working, honest man,” his sister said.

Arlene Dyer said the family was devastated by her brother’s death.

“My sister is in hospital and my brother is dead. We don’t have anything to look forward to for Christmas,” she said.

Dyer’s killing pushed the murder toll for the year to 497 for the year.