MOUNT SALEM, St James- Parking his minibus in the church yard in his community and then walking home – less than 400 metres – after a hard day’s work was a regular routine for Robert Paul.

He obviously had no fear making the nightly trek, for he drove onto the church ground shortly after 1:00 am yesterday, locked up his bus and headed towards his home at Crawford Street.

He didn’t make it.

Paul, 46, was shot dead, and no one apparently saw who committed the murder.

Residents told the police that they heard explosions at about 1:30 am. When the police arrived, they found Paul lying on the sidewalk in a pool of blood.

Yesterday afternoon, when the Sunday Observer made telephone contact with his wife, Joy, she was too overcome with grief to speak.

Her 22 year-old daughter, Tanniel McLennon, however, expressed her distress at the murder of her stepfather, who she described as the family’s sole breadwinner.

“Me feel real depressed because he helped me a lot,” McLennon told the Sunday Observer. “He was more than a father to me. I don’t know…. I feel real bad. He is the breadwinner for the family. Everybody could depend on him. I feel real stressed.”

She said that after they learnt of Paul’s death, her mother had to be taken to hospital for treatment.

“She can’t eat anything. She can’t stay in the room because when she see his clothes hang up or any other of his belongings she cries more,” McLennon said, then started crying herself.

She said her stepfather was a quiet man who got along with everyone in the community.