A fun and relaxing evening among friends in Beetham Gardens was shattered by stray bullets on Saturday, leaving a mother of two dead and her family calling for justice.

Sharida Ali, 36, of Kelly Village, Caroni, was fatally struck in the head by a bullet while liming while in the kitchen of a friend’s home on 19th Street, Beetham Gardens.

Police were reportedly chasing bandits who took them on a chase along the Beetham Highway.

Police said around 6 pm on January 18, two officers from the Tunapuna CID were responding to a report of a robbery in the Arouca Police District.

They said two men took a silver Nissan Note at gunpoint.

Police said officers from the Northern Division received a report that the car had been seen near the Beetham Highway.

Police said it was intercepted on the eastbound lane of the Beetham Highway.

They said the suspects got out of the car and ran north into Beetham Gardens.

Several gunshots were heard. The men eventually escaped.

Police said they were later told a woman had been struck by a bullet in a house.

They said they took her to the Port of Spain General Hospital, where she died around 6.15 pm while being treated.

PC Felix, Khan, Valentine and Hoyte of the Port of Spain CID (Area East) visited the hospital and made enquiries. They then visited the scene and interviewed more people.

[caption id="attachment_1133776" align="alignnone" width="928"] Ayesha Ali mourns her sister Sharida Ali at her home in St Joseph on January 19. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption]

The scene was later processed by PCs Samm and Philip, who found four spent 9 mm shells and one spent 5.56 shell.

Police said enquiries are ongoing.

Newsday visited 19th Street on January 19 and spoke with Lisa Welch, a friend of Ali and the owner of the house where she was fatally shot.

She said Ali, who was a regular visitor to her home, had been there around 1 pm.

“I had something for her and I told her to come and get it. After that we were just liming.”

Welch and Ali both worked at Cinemas 8 in Trincity Mall and were long-time friends.

Welch said Ali had just finished speaking to her daughter on the phone when the shooting happened.

“The daughter asked her to bring home Rituals and Church’s Chicken, and she say she was leaving in a little while to come home.”

She said sometime after 5 pm, they heard a commotion on the highway and saw men running up the street, followed by the sound of gunshots.

She said her house had more than ten people in it at the time, including seven children in the living room.

Ali was standing in front of the sink in the kitchen, preparing to take out ice for a drink, and Welch was standing a few metres behind her.

Ali’s sister Ayesha Ali was also in the kitchen cooking, a few metres to her right.

[caption id="attachment_1133775" align="alignnone" width="1024"] A Beetham Gardens resident shows where a bullet shattered glass in the house where Sharida Ali was killed on Saturday. - Photo by Angelo Marcelle[/caption]

“I didn’t even know the bullet came