By Bibi Khatoon
Bibi Zalaka Shaheed’s life has changed and not for the better. On this day one year ago, her husband died and as she and her children were preparing a memorial service, her 58-year-old son was shot and killed and her two other sons have been hospitalized with gunshot wounds – all at the hands of two masked gunmen.
The weeping woman found the strength to speak to News Room today, hours after her son, Fazal Shaheed died while undergoing surgery at the Georgetown Public Hospital. Fazal resided at Albion, Corentyne and was self-employed.
“If you hear the gun, ow, it was a sad thing. I don’t know how people could take people life and you ain’t do them nothing. Even if you do them something, they got other way you can do something like that,” the tearful woman said. It should be noted too that Bibi Zalaka turns 82 tomorrow.
Fazal Shaheed, a father of one, was shot approximately three times to his abdomen and once in the region of his lungs. His brothers, Abdul Talim Shaheed and Shalim Shaheed were also injured during the attack at the Lot 194 Freeman Street, East La Penitence, Georgetown home.
According to the family, Talim of Toronto, Canada was shot once and Shalim of the United States, was shot approximately three times. The family could only verify that a handbag containing an undisclosed sum of cash and travel documents was taken from the home. They are unsure as to whether the brothers were robbed of anything given their state and the confusion at the house.
THE ATTACK
When News Room visited the scene on Sunday morning, tents and chairs along with the food prepared for a memorial service today, remained in the same place when tragedy struck the family hours before.
Bibi Zalaka related that one masked male entered the kitchen area where she was with her daughter and daughter-in-law and ordered them to lay on the floor. While the woman complied, she said she was able to look up and saw the person’s face fully masked, with only his eyes visible.
However, her daughter-in-law, Fazana, who is now mourning the death of her husband, told News Room that she initially refused to comply and the suspect then pushed her down to the floor.
“He told me to lie down and and doh say nothing but I didn’t move so he pushed me down and tell me lay there…and then I hear something fall in the sitting room where my husband and brothers-in-laws were, and then I hear gunshots. Then, like about two or three seconds, I hear gunshots again, lots of shot and my sister-in-law get up and she say they gone, and we hear groaning; like the pain, them boy start to groan,” the distraught woman recounted.
When Fazana reached to the sitting room, she noticed her brothers-in-laws bleeding; she patted their cheeks saying, “yual wake up, open yual eye.”
The woman, who is trying to come to grips with the loss of her husband, said it was then that she looked for her husband and noticed “he was almost half dead. And ah wake he up…then the neighbours come and plenty plenty people and the driver and me carry the three of them to the hospital and them say he nah go make it, them shoot pan he lungs, is four bullets he get.”
Fazana said she cannot tell how many gunmen entered the home or from where they entered, however she claimed that before her husband died, he told her that he knew the men.
A BROTHER’S PAIN
Raymond Shaheed, another brother who resides at Subryanville, Georgetown, told News Room that he had just left his mother’s home and was about to go to bed when he received a frantic call from his sister who informed him of what happened.
“I burst open the triage room, much to the annoyance of the doctors and the security and what I found there was mind boggling, it was so sad,” Raymond said.
Sobbing, he said, “I saw my brother Fazal already dead, and I moved to the next…and there I saw my brother from Canada, Talim—so I asked him what happened and he said ‘Ray I was shot from my shoulder and the bullet exited my armpit’ and next to him was my other brother and he was groaning in pain and when I checked him with the doctor, he had about three to four bullets in the abdomen.”
Shalim is currently critical at the Georgetown Public Hospital while Talim was treated and moved to the male ward at the hospital.
Police reported that several spent shells have been retrieved from the scene by investigators who are currently working on several leads in order to quickly bring the perpetrators to justice.
A male suspect from East La Penitence has since been taken into custody and is assisting with the investigation. Fazal who has an identical twin brother, was one of eight siblings; seven brothers and one sister.
