T&T father sacrifices self to save family

(Trinidad Guardian) Despite knowing that he could be shot dead, Krishna Maharaj sacrificed his life for his family when he coaxed a gunman into leaving their home together so his wife could have a chance to escape.

There was no happy ending to Maharaj’s heroics as he was shot in the head and later died on the surgeon’s table at the San Fernando General Hospital.

According to reports, Maharaj, 37, a Cepep contractor, his wife Sabrina Khan, 28, and their nine-year-old son were at their Reform Village home around 8.30 pm Monday, when two men, one armed with a gun, stormed into the family’s home.

The family’s workman, Allescott Gaskill, who was in the apartment watching television with Maharaj and Khan, told the Guardian yesterday that the men immediately began shouting, “Where the money is? Where the gold is?”

Gaskill said the gunmen turned to him and told him to look away, and then bound and gagged him with cloth and an electrical cord. They then began slapping Maharaj and Khan, and demanded money before ransacking the apartment.

He said they untied Khan, who went into a room and surrendered pieces of jewellery and a bag of coins. Still not satisfied, they began demanding more cash. That was when Maharaj told the bandits that there was cash at Khan’s business in Gasparillo.

“He said he had cash by the spa and he asked them if he gave them the money, if they would go away. They said yes, so he and the gunman left while the other one stayed. The other one had a knife that he took from the kitchen,” Gaskill said.

No one knew what happened at the spa, but Gaskill said that with the couple’s son and his mother-in-law, Zorina, asleep in the next apartment, Maharaj did not want them to wake up. When the gunman returned, he said, the bandit and his accomplice had a private conversation and left.

At that point, Gaskill told Khan to untie him and he ran to the neighbour’s house to call the police. However, they found Maharaj bleeding in the front seat of his Nissan Bluebird. He was taken to hospital by the police.

It was the second time the family was robbed as Zorina said that in 2015, bandits invaded their home and got away with cash and jewelry. She believes the bandits were targeting the family, and earlier around 7 pm she heard the neighbour’s dog barking at something in the bush at the back of the house.

“They knew what they were coming here for so this is so terrifying. They were real beating my daughter so he did that to save her. He was that kind of person to do whatever he could to assist. I had no problem with him,” Zorina said.