Contractor shot in head by bandits

“Do not kill innocent people. If you want something, try and work for it.” This was the message Rio Claro housewife Ramdai Bachoo had for the bandits who shot and killed her husband Prisca Babolal, 50, on Friday during a robbery at their Rio Claro home. Babolal, a former Ministry of Works employee, was shot in his head.

Yesterday, Bachoo, 45, said she “never expected” her husband to be killed in such a manner. She said it was the first time he had been robbed in the eight years he worked as a contractor. She called for the return of the hangman and stiffer penalties.

“If somebody kill a relative of yours for no reason at all, would you allow them to go free? He did not deserve that. I cannot see that somebody come to rob you of your hard-earned money and they kill you for that. No way I could see that right in this country or no country at all. Everybody supposed to work and make for themselves,” she said.

The couple, who had been married for 13 years, had no children. Police said around 3.30 pm on Friday, Babolal had just returned to his home with money to pay his workers when he was approached by two armed men who demanded money. Babolal told them he did not have the money. He had given the money to one of his workers. The bandits took the money from the man and fired three shots before escaping into a bushy area behind the couple’s home.

The grieving widow, who was home at the time of the killing, said she heard a loud explosion and went outside to see what was happening. She said saw a man with a bandana over his face and ran back inside. She heard a two more shots and when she went outside the workers told her the police had been contacted. Babolal was placed in the back of a van and transported to the Rio Claro Health Centre where he was pronounced dead on arrival.