Shot dead over daughter

Sagram, 39, was shot eight times by the gunman. Her death and the killing of another mother, Yvonne Taitt, of Morvant took the murder toll among women to six.

Sagram was shot in front of her 18-year-old daughter, Sacha, but the shocked teenager has not been able to give the police a description of her mother’s killer because she did not see his face.

Police however believe Sagram became the target of an irate heckler who had troubled Sacha at Grand Bazaar, Valsayn on Saturday night.

Sagram, Sacha and other relatives went to Grand Bazaar to buy burgers after attending a rock concert at the Centre of Excellence, Macoya. A group of men began to harass Sacha and Sagram intervened.

“I am her mother. Please show respect to my daughter, she is a woman and I’m sure you all have mothers and sisters,” Sagram told them, according to police reports.

Investigators said the conversation got heated between Sagram and one of the men who moved to hit her but he did not.

Sagram and her relatives left Grand Bazaar and went to the On the Block Bar at Caura Junction, El Dorado, where they ordered drinks and were talking about the rock concert. At about 5 am, a gunman entered the bar walked up to Sagram and fired eight shots at her in full view of stunned patrons at the popular bar.

Two other patrons yet to be identified suffered gunshot injuries. The gunman walked away.

Sacha and her relatives began screaming and officers of the Tunapuna Police Station were alerted.

An eyewitness told Newsday that the shooting happened so quickly he thought what he was witnessing was not real.

“That was real madness, I cannot believe what this country coming to. Imagine killing a woman as though her life meant nothing, and the man walk away cool, cool, like nothing happened. I feeling real sick to my stomach right now,” he said. Yesterday, the bar remained open for business.

Sagram’s ex-husband Bobby Sagram said their daughter was so traumatised she may need counselling. He said he and Sagram had separated 11 years ago but they maintained a good relationship. Bobby Sagram said his exwife loved the outdoors and was a good person.

“Meela was a free-spirited person and when I heard how she was shot so many times, maybe because she stood up to some hecklers and defended our daughter. I am enraged by what our society has become,” he said, in an interview at the family’s home on Sagram Street, El Dorado. “Even when her body was slumped in the bar, she looked so peaceful but I want justice. I want it as soon as possible, because Meela was slaughtered, her life snuffed out by a coward in possession of a gun.”

Sagram’s death comes just six months after her 35-year-old brother Premnath Rambharat, a doubles vendor, was shot dead while asleep at his apartment at Seventh Avenue, Malick.

No clear motive was established for Rambharat’s killing.