Trinidadexpress.com – A 58-year-old Pleasantville mom hit by a stray bullet last week, has died at hospital.
The bullet that struck grandmother Charmaine Grey penetrated her buttocks and traveled into her abdomen causing fatal injuries.
She was shot on February 4 and died nine days later at the Intensive Care Unit of the San Fernando General Hospital.
The mother of seven and a grandmother of 13 was lying on her couch watching television when there was a hail of gunfire outside her house.
Grey, a diabetic, had her right leg amputated under her knee eight years ago.
One of her sons, Daniel Grey, 34, said the shooting occurred around 10 p.m. when his younger brother, Isaiah Grey, and his neighbour, Cayenne Khan, were liming 30 feet away at the end of their street—Cherry Drive, Blitz Village.
Grey said a grey Nissan Tiida pulled up and one of the occupants fired seven shots.
One of the bullets penetrated the wooden wall of his mother’s house, and then a wooden partition near where Grey was lying on the couch.
“It just missed my nephew’s head who was asleep on a mattress on the ground,” he said. “My mother get shot and she rolled off the couch and fall on the ground. She was bleeding so we put her in a van and went to hospital,” he said.
Grey said the next day his mother was talking as she lay in her hospital bed. The doctors told her family she required surgery as the bullet had travelled into her abdomen. He said she underwent surgery, but doctors said it was not successful as they did not find the bullet.
He said as the days passed his mother’s condition worsened, and the family was told that she was required to do another surgery, but she was too weak and needed blood.
“On Wednesday afternoon, I went to see her. She wasn’t talking, her left side was swollen and it went dead. She was waving her hand like she was in her own zone. I held her hand and it was cold. About quarter to seven we got a call that she passed away,” the son said.
Grey said the family was left in shock since his mother was a vibrant person.
“She planted lettuce and patchoi. The right leg was cut just after her knee but she used to go everywhere on her crutches. She used to go out church in Moruga. She was a very loving and caring person. She used to quarrel, but quarrel for the right thing. She didn’t take any stupidness,” he said.
She was self-employed, and sold knitted hats, leather slippers and accessories on High Street years ago, he said.
“Whoever did the shooting didn’t really care about anybody or anything. There are a lot of children living in this area. There are six children in this house. It could have been anyone of them. We are calling for justice. She never did anything wrong,” Grey said.
