'It was a hit'

“She put up a real fight for her life but it wasn’t to be,” one grieving family member told Newsday. “Yesterday, (Wednesday) the hospital called all the family to come to the hospital to say goodbye to her. She looked very peaceful.” Family members are now saying that Martin was attacked because she dared to walk away from a relationship in which she no longer had an interest. One of them told Newsday that her life had been threatened. He said, “He told her that he would kill her if she ever went back to her old boyfriend and she didn’t hide the threat because she had mentioned it to all her friends that he had threatened her and people know he is capable.” Relatives revealed Martin was afraid to report the matter to the police because of the man’s “connections.” The mother of one died at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) of the San Fernando General Hospital (SFGH) surrounded by close relatives and friends, including her boyfriend Shamshudeen Mohammed who was also shot and wounded in the gun attack in the early hours of August 31 - the Independence holiday. According to police, the couple had been liming in the gallery of Mohammed’s home in Fyzabad when they were confronted by two gunmen who opened fire on them.

Martin was shot in the head and hand while Mohammed sustained gunshot wounds to the leg. He remains warded at hospital. Martin, of Dow Village, South Oropouche never regained consciousness, relatives told Newsday yesterday saying that they had been praying for a miracle. Relatives yesterday admitted that Martin may have made a wrong choice in a partner and paid for it with her life. “She chose the wrong man,” he said. “He had given her many gifts including a car, a ring and perfumes and when they broke up, he took back all.” They believe that she had a premonition of her death as “just like that” Martin re-organised her room, putting on a new coat of paint and carpeting the room.  “Her daughter loved it and they were all happy,” the relative said. “Looking back now it is as if she knew something was going to happen because just so she came that day and began cleaning out the room,” one family member told Newsday. “She even told us that she will not be here although she was doing all that.”

Another relative said the last time they saw Martin was when she was leaving to meet Mohammed, and she had a worried look on her face. He said, “We asked her if all was well and all she said is that she going to lime with Sham.” Hours later, relatives said they were informed that Martin was shot in the head.  Martin was described as an ambitious and independent young woman who loved her eight-year-old daughter and her family dearly. The daughter has been receiving counselling after her mother was shot. But up to lunch time yesterday, the child had not been told of her mother’s death. Relatives promised to disclose the bad news to her when she got home from school yesterday. She was removed from her mother’s apartment and has since been staying with other relatives since the shooting incident.  Relatives are calling for justice claiming that the perpetrator is known to the police. Newsday was told that despite the circumstances under which the victims were shot and wounded, neither Martin or Mohammed was provided with police protection. “I want to know why,” the relative said. “Only yesterday, we went to the station to ask for protection at the hospital but Denise has died. Her boyfriend is scared for his life now, as he is still warded at hospital.”