Sto­ry by RHON­DOR DOWLAT-ROS­TANT

A case of a rob­bery gone awry for a dou­bles busi­ness fam­i­ly in Gas­par­il­lo…

Dou­bles ven­dor and fa­ther of two, Daniel Sook­lal, was shot and killed short­ly be­fore mid­night on Thurs­day.

Ac­cord­ing to a po­lice re­port, 30-year-old Sook­lal was sell­ing dou­bles along Union Road in Mara­bel­la, in the vicin­i­ty of the Har­mo­ny Hall Pres­by­ter­ian School, to­geth­er with his wife, Azeema Almeen and work­er Stephanie Khan when a masked gun­man ap­proached them and an­nounced a hold up.

Po­lice said Sook­lal, his wife and work­er at­tempt­ed to run away; how­ev­er, the gun­man opened fire, killing Sook­lal on the scene.

His wife and work­er es­caped in­juries but both are said to be high­ly trau­ma­tised.

A rel­a­tive told the Guardian Me­dia that Sook­lal grew up in the dou­bles mak­ing and sell­ing busi­ness with his moth­er and the fam­i­ly is well known in the south­land, as he owned sev­er­al stalls.

The rel­a­tive de­scribed Sook­lal, as a hard­work­ing in­di­vid­ual and one who loved what he did.

Po­lice said the armed ban­dit is be­lieved to have been lurk­ing around the area wait­ing on the fam­i­ly to close their sales for the night to rob them of their earn­ings.

An au­top­sy will be con­duct­ed on Sook­lal's body on Fri­day, at the Foren­sic Sci­ence Cen­tre in St James.