Trinidad mom shot dead in front daughter

Pamela Joseph
Pamela Joseph

(Trinidad Express) “Where  yuh son?”

These were the words 48-year-old Pamela Joseph heard before she was fatally shot yesterday morning at her home in Ninth Avenue, Barataria.

Around 2.25 a.m. Joseph and other rela­tives were asleep in their home when they heard banging noises against the back door.

Joseph got up to see who was outside. However, as she walked down a corridor, gunshots were heard.

The suspects then broke down the front door instead and forced their way into the home.

The 48-year-old woman ran to her bedroom and hid behind a wall.

However, two masked men entered the room and confronted her, demanding to know where her son was.

She told them she did not know where he was. The suspects then shot Joseph several times.

They fled the scene without injuring anyone else in the house.

Relatives notified the police and paramedics, and a team of officers, led by Insp Ramsingh, Sgt Maynard, Sgt Ramsumair and Cpl George, among others, responded.

Joseph died at the scene.

WPC Elcock is continuing enquiries.

When the Sunday Express visited the area yester­day, no one was at Joseph’s home.

A door on the north-­western side of the house appeared to have just been installed.

Neighbours said the family had replaced the broken door yesterday morn­ing after crime scene investigators left.

However, the family, fearing for their lives, had gone to stay with another relative, a resident living nearby said.

Joseph was a CEPEP (Community-based Environ­mental Protection and Enhancement Programme) worker, another recalled.

“This is a sad, sad thing. Pam was a sweetheart. She lived there with her son and daughter. The daughter was at home when the whole thing unfold. She was in the same room when the gunmen kill Pam.

“She said she was by the chest of drawers when they come in the room.

“When the gunmen come in, she say they point the gun at (Joseph’s daughter) before deciding to just shoot Pam instead. And then they just walk out.

“But she couldn’t contain herself this morning. She was in tears and just inconsolable. And I don’t blame her. Because you had to see your mother get killed. And you survived? That kinda trauma doesn’t leave you.

“Right now, I just praying that this doesn’t start a whole next gang thing here,” a resident said.