Less than an hour after liming at a club, two friends were found dead, their bodies riddled with bullets, in a parked car in Penal yesterday morning. The dead men were identified as 35-year-old Gary Shah, the driver of the car, and a father of four, of Gransaul Street, San Fernando, and Anderson Edmund, 22, of Lodge Road, Claxton Bay. Shah was slumped over the wheel, while Edmund, whose aunt was married to Shah, was laid back in the front passenger seat. The gruesome discovery was made by emergency worker Rudrasingh Ramdeen, while on his way to work around 4 am. Ramdeen was driving along the Siparia Erin Road in Penal when he observed a gold Mazda in the middle of the road.
Upon investigation, he saw the blood-soaked bodies of two men of East Indian and African descent. He immediately called E-999. Officers of the Siparia CID and Homicide Bureau arrived within minutes. Investigating officer, acting Supt Franklin Sampath of the Siparia CID, said: "Upon arriving at the scene, Inspector Joanne Archie, attached to the Siparia CID, and Sergeant Douglas, of the Penal CID, discovered a gold Mazda with the licence plate PCD 4632 on the Siparia Erin Road, with Shah slumped over the wheel and Edmund in the passenger side with bullet wounds about the face, chest and back."
Police have ruled out robbery, since both men were still wearing expensive gold chains, rings and ID bands.The money in their wallets was untouched. Edmund had on a thick gold ID bracelet which a bullet had smashed straight through. Several spent shells were found in and around the vehicle and will be taken to forensics for examination.
Still trying to come to terms with her brother's murder, Shah's sister Nadine said: "The only thing we know so far is that my brother was liming at a bar in Penal with the other guy (Edmund) ...There was some talk about an altercation and then this."
Shah had four children–ages three, nine, 13 and 16. He worked with an offshore company. "It's just too much to cope with right now...I lost my son four months ago and now my brother," Nadine said. Her 12-year-old son, Andre, was discovered hanging from a towel in the bathroom of his Gransaul Street home by his sister on April 30 this year. His 19-year-old sister went to check on him after she heard the water continuously running and found him lifeless hanging from a towel attached to the pipe in the bathroom. Shah's common-law wife of 11 years, Rishma Samuel, said: "There are no words to express how devastated I feel. "I spoke to him at home on Saturday around 2 pm and then on the phone at 5 pm," she added.
At the crime scene yesterday, Edmund's mother Joy Samuel broke down in tears at the sight of her son's body, as it was removed from the car. Overcome with grief, a distraught Samuel threw herself on the ground screaming. She had to be picked up and carried away by relatives. A relative of Anderson Edmund said: "This is such a loss...Just the other day, Anderson was talking to me about joining the army and wanting to settle down and have a family." Autopsies are expected to be performed on the bodies at the Forensic Science Centre, Port-of-Spain, today. Investigations are continuing.