When Samdaye Kumar woke up yesterday morning and saw her son sprawled on the living-room couch in front of the television, she believed he was sleeping peacefully.
She mistook the sheen of drying blood on his forehead for Vicks and went about her task of preparing lunch for the day—chicken with potato—unaware that mere metres away her son was in fact dead.
But after about an hour Kumar realised that her son, Sundar Rambissoon, had in fact been shot in the head and awoke other family members and neighbours with her screams.
Speaking to journalists outside her Hermitage Village, New Settlement, Dumfries Road, home, Kumar recalled the events of the night before, when police believe Rambissoon was killed.
“It was about 9 o’clock, I hear two loud noises. I say to myself ‘I wonder who bursting fireworks this hour.’ I watched outside but I didn’t see nobody so I went and sleep,” she said.
“I know he was watching TV from earlier so I didn’t worry about anything.”
Even when she awoke yesterday morning and heard the television still on in the living room, she assumed her son was watching cricket, she said.
“I hear the TV on when I get up, but I say I know how he like cricket, he maybe watching a game. I went and peep him and he look like he sleeping. So I ent bother him, I went to cook.”
Having prepared chicken and potato, she was getting ready to make roti when she decided to check on Rambissoon again.
“I peep again and see something shining on his head. I say he put Vicks (ointment) on his head and sleep away. Is only when I come back again I realise it was blood—then I start to scream.”
Rambissoon’s body bore gunshot wounds to the head. While his body was being removed by the undertaker, Kumar broke down completely, begging officials to let her see him one last time. She also had to be restrained by relatives as she tried to run out into the roadway in front of the undertaker’s vehicle.
Survived previous attack
Rambissoon had survived being shot four times in the leg during an attack two years ago and lived obliquely opposite the site where Southern Division police discovered a large quantity of firearms, ammunition and illegal drugs last week.
But, according to senior Southern Division officials, there is no evidence to suggest the two incidents were related.
Last week, police officers recovered an AK-47, two pistols, a revolver and ammunition. They also seized $1.7 million in cocaine. A man was arrested and has since appeared in the San Fernando Magistrates Court for possession of the illegal items; he has been remanded into custody.
One of Rambissoon’s neighbours, who asked not to be identified, said he also thought the sounds on Thursday were firecrackers.
“I hear the noise and went outside to check it out cause my wife was outside. But I didn’t see anybody or hear any more noise, so I thought it was fireworks.”
He described Rambissoon as a hardworking, church-going person.
“He was never a troublemaker, he used to go to church every Sunday. It is so shocking to see the things you read about in the papers coming home to your village. This is a total shock to everyone.”