‘Frida, don’t leave me’

Frida Goodridge, 32, from Second Drive, Mt D’Or, was shot and killed at Mt Hope Road, Champs Fleurs yesterday morning. According to police at 9.30 am, Goodridge was in her Nissan Tiida and had parked in front of her business Afeisha Mini Mart (Afeisha is a nickname) with her 13-year-old son, whose name was not released.

The two were talking when a man in dark clothing approached the vehicle and opened fire. Both Goodridge and her son ran out of the car. Her son was shot in his leg while Goodridge was shot in her chest, arms and legs. She died at the scene.

When Sunday Newsday arrived yesterday afternoon her body was being removed by the forensics department and friends and family were gathered. The grass on the pavement was still blood stained.

One man on the scene exclaimed “Oh God Lord” and held his head in distress.

Goodridge’s mother Shelly-Ann Parris, told the media what happened when she saw her daughter’s body.

“I tried to raise her head and I telling her ‘Frida, don’t leave me’,” she said. Goodridge was the first of six children for her. Her youngest is 17 and he was in the shop when the shooting occurred. She reported that her son jumped in his car and took off after the assailant in another vehicle. In the chase he ended up crashing the vehicle he was driving.

Then he ran by his grandmother “bawling ‘they kill meh sister, they kill meh sister’”.

Asked if her daughter had received any threats Parris responded that she had not heard about anything.

“She was a real cool person.

Down to earth. She might cuss you today; tomorrow she talk to you.

She was a real nice child. That was one of my advisers. In my first children, my six children, she was really, really nice. Frida was a real nice person. A real nice child,” she said.

She added: “But I don’t know. My daughter didn’t have no beef with nobody.” She was last in contact with her daughter three days ago.

She explained that her son would run the shop and she would normally come and visit her.

“But I haven’t seen her more than I see her this morning lying down on the ground,” she said.

Goodridge had operated the mini mart for almost a year. She was planning to extend the shop for her son to sell clothes and was scheduled to receive the clothes next weekend. Her grandson was planning to have a party tonight and Goodridge was planning to travel to England in November on business.

She reported that her grandson and Goodridge’s only child was scheduled for surgery after being shot in the leg during the incident.

Investigations into her murder are continuing.

On crime in the area, Parris reported in the past there may have been some incidents of crime but “it get real cool” until some recent incidents. Yesterday a resident who described himself only as “a preacher” and called for people to turn to God said there were about three murders in the last two months and crime was “developing”.

A neighbour, Winston “Stone” Gopaul, described Goodridge as a “very active lady” who was “always on her business”. Asked how he felt about Goodridge’s murder, Gopaul responded “hurt”. He pointed out that his daughter, who died in an accident, was friends with her.

Questioned whether he felt safe after a murder occurred a stone’s throw away from his home, Gopaul responded “anything could happen no matter how safe (you are)”.

He said every day there were police patrols on the street and when they pass nothing happens.

Asked if crime was bad in the area he responded that Mt Hope was “always a good place” but there had been murders of late.

“I don’t know what cause these recent murders,” he said.

From April to August this year, there were three reports of murders on Mt Hope Road.

On April 10, aspiring cricketer and British national Adrian St John was killed after being held up at gunpoint by two men while seated in his vehicle at Hillsdale Crescent, Mt Hope Road, Mt Hope.

In July, Phillip Bartholomew, aka “Salt”, of Mt Hope Road, was shot eight times and his jewellery stolen near his home.

On August 29, labourer Antonio Cyrus, 41, was at his home on Mt Hope Road just after 10 pm when a familiar voice called out to him.

When he answered and stepped outside, he was met by bullets.