Petrina Salandy, who was shot and killed the day before her 40th birthday, was remembered yesterday as a hero who died as she lived, protecting her children. Salandy, of Clifton Street, East Dry River, was walking along St Paul Street with her baby and three sons—Lorenzo, 13, Raheem, 11 and Jaydon, four, — through the area on Saturday around 11.45 am.
At the time, residents had set up roadblocks to protest the fatal police shooting of Kishawn Daniel, 19. A group of men armed with what were described as machine guns ran down the hill from an area known as Block 8 and opened fire. Salandy and Rohan Ayres, 15, a pupil of the Russel Latapy High School, were both killed during the attack.
At her funeral at Simpson’s Funeral Chapel, Eastern Main Road, Laventille, yesterday, Salandy’s sister Ashaki Salandy, in her eulogy, told the packed chapel that her sister demonstrated all the characteristics of a great mother. “Her four young children were her life and she would do anything for them, and that was what she did the day she died. She died protecting her children and followed the law of being a good parent,” Salandy said.
Eyewitnesses said when the shooting began last Saturday Salandy pushed her children out of harm’s way. She was killed by a single shot to the back. Her youngest child, Kayla, five months old, was in her arms. The child, stained in her mother’s blood, was removed and cared for by nearby residents until the shooting stopped. During the homily the Rev Ijeoma Ibeleme told the congregation, which included Salandy’s co-workers, her children’s classmates and neighbours, that they should not live in fear.
“Living in fear means you would die before you are dead,” Ibeleme told the gathering. She added that there was bad news all around and wished she could have said that Salandy’s life would be the last that would be brutally cut down. She called on the congregation to trust in Christ Jesus and be strong not only for themselves but for others as: “We need to be there for one another.”