(Trinidad Express) A woman was shot dead, another critically injured and three men wounded when masked men opened fire on guests at a birthday party on Thursday night.
Asha Fernando, 28, was shot five times—in the left hand, leg and chest—by one of the gunmen who followed her under a house. She died on arrival at the San Fernando General Hospital.
Another gunman stood over 31-year-old Malika Henry and sprayed her with bullets. She remained in critical condition at the hospital’s intensive care unit last evening.
Three others were shot—Sean Brown was injured in the right foot, Bevan Drakes on the elbow and Richard Quiles was grazed in the buttocks, police said.
The shooting occurred outside the home of Carlene Phillips, at Green Hill Avenue, Tarodale Hills, Ste Madeleine, where about 40 people were gathered around 10.30 pm.
“We were liming right here, playing cards. The music was playing and all of a sudden a car pulled up, three men came out and began pumping bullets into people. Everyone started to run, but the men followed. They reach almost at the back of the house. We couldn’t do anything,” an eyewitness said.
The man, who lived nearby, said the gunmen were passengers in a blue Mitsubishi Lancer car. Police recovered 60 spent shells at the scene. The bullets pierced the walls of two houses.
Another man, who did not want to be identified, said he and his wife were liming at the party when the gunmen entered.
“I grabbed my wife and run under the house and lie down. Asha run under the house too, but the man followed her. She raised her hand and the man shoot off the watch she was wearing. Then he watch the girl and start pumping bullets into her. It was the most horrific scene. I couldn’t do anything because I was thinking about my wife and my small children,” he said.
There were bloodstains on the roadway leading into the two houses on Friday.
Residents believe the shooting was a case of mistaken identity.
“The men came for a woman who moved here recently. They thought she was Asha (Fernando), but the woman was inside the house,” a resident told the Express.
The woman was not at home on Friday.
Fernando lived in a common-law relationship at Stone Hill Avenue, Tarodale Hills. She was the niece of San Fernando Magistrates’ Court prosecutor Sgt Wendell Fernando. She had no children.
