Sascha Wil­son

With Christ­mas days away, moth­er of two Sashell El­liot was still de­cid­ing the best present for her chil­dren.

But she nev­er got the op­por­tu­ni­ty to get them any­thing, as El­liot and her 17-month-old daugh­ter No­va were shot dead in front of their In­di­an Walk, Moru­ga home.

El­liot’s com­mon-law hus­band Akiel Bere­ton, 40, was al­so in­jured but sur­vived the at­tack. A 34-year-old sus­pect from In­di­an Walk, Moru­ga, was ar­rest­ed about an hour lat­er.

Po­lice were told that all three of them were in Sashell’s store at Fort George Road around 7.50 pm. She was hold­ing No­va.

A blue Aqua pulled up and a man armed a ri­fle came out and fired at least nine shots at them.

El­liot was lat­er found slumped over her ba­by but they were still alive. All three of them were tak­en to the Princes Town Health Fa­cil­i­ty, where the moth­er and daugh­ter suc­cumbed to their in­juries. El­liot was shot in her back and chest while the ba­by was shot in her chest.

Bere­ton, a con­trac­tor, was ward­ed at the San Fer­nan­do Gen­er­al Hos­pi­tal with wounds to his face and ab­domen last night.

Po­lice be­lieve Bere­ton was the in­tend­ed tar­get, but they have not yet con­firmed a mo­tive.

Neigh­bours ex­pressed shock and sad­ness over the in­ci­dent, es­pe­cial­ly over the death of ba­by No­va. A rel­a­tive said he was at home when he heard loud ex­plo­sions but dis­missed them as be­ing fire­crack­ers and on­ly found out lat­er what had hap­pened.

“It sad, re­al sad,” he said.

El­liot lived with Bere­ton at his fam­i­ly’s house, but it be­gan crum­bling due to a land­slip, and she, No­va and her nine-year-old son moved in with her moth­er about two months ago.

De­scribed by her rel­a­tives as be­ing am­bi­tious, El­liot was op­er­at­ing her own busi­ness, Sashell’s Food & Cloth­ing Mi­ni Mart, for the last three years.

Bere­ton’s sis­ter be­lieves that her broth­er was the in­tend­ed tar­get, since El­liot kept to her­self.

“She don’t re­al­ly min­gle un­less it’s her busi­ness. She is not a per­son that re­al­ly min­gle with the com­mu­ni­ty. If you talk to her she will talk to you. She don’t lime, just her busi­ness and her fam­i­ly,” she said.

How­ev­er, she said her broth­er nev­er com­plained that his life was un­der threat. She was wor­ried about El­liot’s son, who was at his grand­moth­er’s house when the shoot­ing oc­curred.

“She (El­liot) was plan­ning what (to buy for her son) and what they want to buy for No­va. It not easy, but God knows best.”

Lament­ing that the crime sit­u­a­tion was ter­ri­ble, she said, “Moru­ga was a very safe place, now it get­ting ter­ri­ble.”

Po­lice in­ter­cept­ed the al­leged get­away ve­hi­cle around 8.55 pm along the Man­a­ham­bre Road in Ste Madeleine and ar­rest­ed the dri­ver. He is as­sist­ing po­lice in their in­quiries.

Mean­while, po­lice re­cov­ered nine 7.62 spent shells, a live round and three pro­jec­tiles at the scene.

Of­fi­cers of the Homi­cide Bu­reau of In­ves­ti­ga­tions Re­gion 3 are in­ves­ti­gat­ing.