This was sup­posed to be a week of cel­e­bra­tions for De­nesh Lal. To­day is his 47th birth­day and he and his wife Nadya would have cel­e­brat­ed their tenth wed­ding an­niver­sary to­mor­row. In­stead, there will be a fu­ner­al for the fa­ther of two, who was killed at a mi­ni-mart in Cunu­pia on Tues­day.

Lal, a truck dri­ver, of Ra­goo­nanan Road, Cunu­pia, was shot mul­ti­ple times by a masked gun­man short­ly af­ter he en­tered a mi­ni-mart lo­cat­ed on the same com­pound as his home.

A fe­male rel­a­tive said Lal was on his way to pick up his six-year-old son at 6.20 pm when he stopped at the mi­ni-mart. He had just parked his white Kia K2700 van, en­tered the shop and was speak­ing to the pro­pri­etor when a gun­man came out of a white Nis­san Note and walked to­wards the store.

The gun­man, dressed in black jeans, a dark grey long-sleeved jer­sey, a black hat and a black ski mask, opened fire on Lal. He fled the scene in the wait­ing car.

A 48-year-old man, al­so of Ra­goo­nanan Road, who was stand­ing next to Lal, was shot in the left hip. He was tak­en to the Er­ic Williams Med­ical Sci­ences Com­plex, Mt Hope, where he was treat­ed and is ward­ed in sta­ble con­di­tion.

Rel­a­tives said Lal was a “lov­ing and kind but loud per­son” who liked fast cars and nice things. He was the sole bread­win­ner for his fam­i­ly.

“If you find who­ev­er was be­hind this, it won’t bring him back,” said one of his rel­a­tives. “Noth­ing ever gets re­solved so it feels like just an­oth­er day.

“I know now that this has noth­ing to do with drugs or guns as he was not in­volved in any­thing yet it hap­pened and we have no an­swers.”

An au­top­sy yes­ter­day con­firmed that Lal died from mul­ti­ple gun­shot wounds.