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A couple was murdered while their 12-year-old daughter was left fighting for her life after being shot in the head during a home invasion yesterday.
Death came knocking at the door of Asha George and Devon Drayton’s humble Claxton Bay home shortly after midnight.
Investigators were last evening trying to determine whether George, 30, or her boyfriend Drayton, 33, or both, were the intended targets.
While her 12-year-old daughter was hit during the attack, George’s 14-year-old daughter, who was also in the house, managed to sneak out undetected and was not injured.
The 12-year-old girl remains in a critical condition at the San Fernando General Hospital.
However, those close to her admitted yesterday that violence seemed to follow George.
Twenty-four years ago, George’s father, Eric George, who was Special Reserve Policeman, fatally shot her mother and then turned the gun on himself.
Five years ago, in June 2018, George’s then-boyfriend, Jeremiah Stephen, was shot dead in her parent’s house in Claxton Bay. She was not at home then. Two days later, the house was destroyed in an arson attack.
Police have not indicated whether Stephen’s murder is linked to yesterday’s double murder.
Initial reports stated that the couple and the two children were lying on a mattress in a bedroom of the house located at the end of a dirt road. There was a knock on the door and then two men entered.
The 14-year-old girl managed to escape through the door. She ran to a neighbour’s house and called the police. The police received the call around 12.18 am. When they arrived about ten minutes later, they saw the 12-year-old girl by the door, bleeding from a wound to her head and foot. Her hands were also bloody.
The officers took her to a police vehicle and drove her to the Couva Health Facility for treatment.
In a bedroom in the house, the police found the blood-soaked bodies of the girls’ parents.
Drayton was lying face down while George was lying on her side. Both had several gunshot wounds about their bodies.
A district medical officer viewed the bodies and they were subsequently transported to a funeral home, pending an autopsy at the Forensic Science Centre in St James.
When Guardian Media visited the home yesterday, the front door was padlocked. The plyboard house appeared to be under renovation, but there was no electricity connection. No family members were present.
However, Guardian Media briefly interviewed her brother, Randy George. He said his sister was unemployed but was supposed to have gone to “check a job” at a security firm on Monday.
He said every year they would celebrate their birthdays together, since they shared the same birth date on September 15.
However, he was not confident that her sister’s killers will be brought to justice.
“It have no justice in Trinidad. They not going to solve nothing,” he said.
Police said George was arrested previously for drug-related offences.
Visiting the scene were officers of the Central Division and Homicide Bureau of Investigations Region III. Investigations are continuing.