A Pleasantville man was fatally shot by an off-duty policeman during an altercation in front a supermarket in San Fernando yesterday afternoon.
According to police, Jamie Walker, 39, was shot while his children were seated in his car in front the We Supermarket located along the Naparima Mayaro Road in Cocoyea Village.
Walker’s wife tried to intervene when the officer pulled out his gun.
“Daddy, Daddy,” cried his children as the shots rang off around 4.30 pm.
Video footage showed Walker and the off-duty officer jostling with each other, when the officer pulled out a gun and fired at Walker. Two shots were fired. The incident occurred in full view of several people, including workers.
Walker, a father of four of Orchid Gardens, died at the scene.
Initial reports suggested they were arguing over where Walker’s car was parked.
A senior police officer said the off-duty officer was not detained, as inquiries were continuing. He is said to be a constable assigned to the Guard and Emergency Branch.
Walker’s wife Heather Sedeno-Walker told reporters that she picked up her husband from his workplace in Marabella. Three of their children, ages 13, eight and four, were with her. The couple also has a baby who will turn two this month.
She said they wanted something to eat, so she pulled into the car park area in front of the supermarket and went to a food business across the road.
“While I was waiting, I was hearing arguing. So I came out and I saw he and the guy arguing. I said, ‘What going on?’ the kids are in the car. Why allyuh getting on like that?’ With that they scramble, they separated and throwing talk. Another man said, ‘allyuh be careful, that man has a gun.’”
Sedeno-Walker said when the man pulled out the gun she ran inside a nearby pharmacy and then heard two shots.
“When I came out I saw him standing and talking. I saw blood on his shirt. I said, ‘why he have blood on his shirt? He said ‘he good he good.’ He sat down. Then he lie down and I went over him and realised he got a wound on his belly.”
She said she ran into the pharmacy for advice on how to help her husband alive and the worker told her to put a cloth over it.
“But the guy who did the shooting did not want me to touch him and go around him at all. So I called the ambulance. It took very long to reach. My husband said he wanted water but we could not give it to him,” she said.
Still confused and in shock over the incident, Sedeno-Walker said they had been married for 14 years.
She said, “When the shots fired the three children started to bawl ‘Daddy daddy.’”
She said their 13-year-old son witnessed the shooting.
Sedeno-Walker said she asked the officer how he could shoot her husband.
“He tell me ‘I is ah police’ and showed me his badge,” she recalled.
She said her husband was an ex-soldier and “a person who fights back... “He is a very brave and outspoken person. He is fearless. But this was not called for.”
Homicide Bureau of Investigation III and Southern Division officers are investigating.