“If you have to go and meet mommy, it is ok,” Elvis Black told his ailing father, Bobby Sonny, as he laid on a hospital bed last Saturday after being brutally shot and beaten during a home invasion three weeks ago.
In less than an hour, Black received the tragic phone call that Sonny had died, another elderly victim to murderous criminals. Sonny, 73, the owner of Black’s Minimart, was at his Parforce Road, Gasparillo home around 11 am on September 10 when two men climbed over his gate and entered his home. In what police believes was a robbery, the men beat Sonny savagely on his head before shooting him twice in the pelvis.
On Tuesday, neighbours told Guardian Media that they heard a commotion and when they looked out, they saw the men jumping over the gate and running away.
With his wife gone and his children all grown up, Sonny lived alone, but Black said that he would check his father at least three times a day.
“I had passed and checked him. I usually pass and check him three times a day because he lives alone. Before that happened to him, he was about to cook and he had already peeled the provisions to bubble a pot. When that happened, I was the first person they called. When I reached, one of the neighbours was saying that it was a little boy who alerted people that ‘they robbing Mr Bobby.’”
Despite the bloody scene, Sonny survived and was taken to the San Fernando General Hospital where he spent the rest of his days in the Intensive Care Unit and the High Dependency Unit. With a tube down his throat, Black said his father was unable to tell anyone about the attack.
“Since he went in there, we never spoke. I used to talk to him, but he couldn’t respond because he had a tube down his throat. I used to pray for him every day. The last time I talked to him was Saturday. I told him ‘if you have to go, you have to go’ and about 10 minutes later they called and told me that he died. He was an independent person and the way they shot him, he would not have wanted to live like that."
Sonny’s death was came days after fellow Gasparillo pensioner Chandaye Lalloo, 64, was found murdered at her King Street home. She was stabbed in the face, neck and hands. And while neighbours said Sonny was well-liked in the neighbourhood, Black said young criminals did not care about age or who the person is in the community or family.
“Those fellas don’t cater.”