A baby survived being fatally hit by the bullets of a gunman who came to wipe out a family in Claxton Bay on the night of November 28, killing both parents.
Scrap-iron worker Basdeo “Ricky” Lallan, 49, and his girlfriend Whitney Narine, 21, of Teak Drive off Macaulay Road, died on the spot in their two-bedroom wooden house around 9 pm.
Their seven-month-old son and another child, who is a relative, escaped death, as the killer pointed a gun at them, but it jammed.
[caption id="attachment_1123789" align="alignnone" width="640"] Whitney Narine. -[/caption]
The other child grabbed the baby and ran out of the house, escaping without injuries.
The killer ran through a nearby track and left in a wagon that was parked on the shoulder of the southbound lane of the Solomon Hochoy Highway.
Homicide Bureau of Investigations, Region Three, and St Margaret's police responded and searched for the killer without luck.
Lallan, the father of four, shared one child, the baby boy, with Narine.
At the family’s home on November 29, Lallan’s mother, Jean Subran, who lives next door, vowed to take care of the baby and the minor, though it would be challenging, since she is not wealthy and has arthritis.
[caption id="attachment_1123767" align="alignnone" width="1024"] The home of Basdeo Lallan and Whitney Narine at Teak Drive off Macaulay Road, Claxton Bay. - Photo by Lincoln Holder[/caption]
Subran said just minutes earlier, she had had belly pain, which she believed was a sign of an impending tragedy.
Somehow, she became concerned that something tragic was about to happen to another son. She never expected the double murder.
Subran said she heard the gunshots but initially thought the noise was firecrackers. On learning it was gunshots, she ran next door and saw him her son take his last breath.
Lallan was in a sitting position, and she pleaded with him to stay alive.
“I held his foot and squeezed it. I said, ‘Ricky, tell me what you do? Why you do me this? Why?’ He was too weak to respond,” Subran said. “I am living in a jail. I have to be locked up right through. This is too much for me.”
[caption id="attachment_1123768" align="alignnone" width="759"] Jean Subran, mother of murdered scrap iron worker Basdeo Lallan, who was shot dead alongside his girlfriend Whitney Narine at their Claxton Bay home, holds the seven month baby that survived the shooting. - Photo by Lincoln Holder[/caption]
Subran, who turns 64 next month, cried as she recalled a recent conversation with Lallan.
He said, ‘Your birthday is coming up. Do not worry, I will buy something for you. I never buy anything for you before, but I will buy a gift for you this year.’ Look at the gift he gave me.”
She was inconsolable, saying Lallan was the second of her sons to be gunned down in six years.
On December 6, 2018, her son Neil “Jacko” Bhagaloo, 33, a scrap-iron dealer, was killed at her home. Someone was charged and the matter is pending in court.
In addition, in September 2023, her brother Sylvan “Puncin” Lallan and their niec