Cop kills wife, himselfBy Alexander Bruzual Thursday, August 6 2009
A doctor’s office in Curepe became a murder scene yesterday, when a police corporal fatally shot his common-law wife and then turned the gun on himself.
The policeman, Cpl Sean James, briefly survived his self-inflicted gunshots and underwent emergency surgery at the Eric Williams Medical Sciences Complex (EWMSC), Mt Hope. He died there at about 5.55 pm.
It was at about 1.45 pm, when James went to visit his wife, Donna Noel, at the office of Dr Wahid Mohammed, on the Eastern Main Road, near the Curepe Junction, where she worked as the family doctor’s secretary. There were unconfirmed reports that Mohammed was overseas and that another doctor had taken over his cases until he returns to Trinidad.
According to the police, the couple got into a loud argument which took them from the front of the office to the bathroom area.
It was here, James reportedly pulled out his police service revolver and shot his wife to the head. She died on the spot. The corporal then turned the gun on himself, firing a single shot to his head.
The gunshots had persons at the doctor’s office ducking for cover, and the police were immediately contacted.
A short time later, officers from the St Joseph Police Station arrived and they found Noel’s body and James alive. The corporal was taken by an ambulance to the adult hospital of the EWMSC, where he died after surgery last evening, while undertakers removed Noel’s body, after the police secured the office and took statements. A man, believed to be the doctor who held on for Mohammed, stood behind the caution tape and spoke to the officers. He told reporters he was not at the office at the time of the shooting and declined to comment further.
A woman who last evening answered a call from Newsday to Mohammed’s office said he was not there. Calls to Mohammed’s home last night went unanswered.
It has been reported that the couple had a previous fight at their home at Harper Lane, D’Abadie on Tuesday night and James threatened his wife. No one answered at any of the houses on Harper Lane when Newsday reporters went to the area yesterday.
James was a police officer with more than 17 years service. He was transferred from the Organised Crime, Narcotics and Firearms Bureau to the Besson Street Police Station about two years ago.
A close colleague of James yesterday said he was shocked to learn about the shooting. He described James as a good officer, who never once displayed any violent tendencies throughout his career.
“The police are just men and women like everybody else. We all have our own individual everyday problems like the rest of the world,” said the emotional officer.
“You could be the best police officer, but your life could be in shambles. That is how it is sometimes when we work. I don’t know, maybe something drew him to this, but that is not the type of person he is,” he added.
This is the third time in ten years that a police officer has shot and killed his wife before turning the gun on himself. In 1999, special reserve policeman Eric Elson George shot his wife of 14 years, Tara, before turning his personal revolver on himself. They both died.
The following year, police constable Anthony Danzeel, who had 26 years in the service, shot his wife Patricia, before taking his own life.
