A Chinese restaurant owner was shot dead on Sunday when armed bandits attacked the No. 57 village, Corentyne family just after they had a special dinner to ring in the Chinese New Year.

Dead is 49-year-old Xiu Yi Yang, a mother of four. She ran the Jio Li Lai Chinese Restaurant.

The incident occurred at around 20:00 hrs. According to the older son, Zhou Xing Su called Vincent Su, the family had closed up the restaurant at around 19:30 hrs and sat down for a family dinner since it was Chinese  “Old Year’s Night” for them and they felt very happy having bonded after the  meal.

In tears, the 24-year-old recalled that no sooner had his mother left the table to go into the kitchen, with his father and his younger brother (13) left sitting, than the bandits staged their attacked.

Vincent Su said he heard his mother screaming from the kitchen and when he rushed to see what was happening he noticed two men with cutlasses demanding money. They had apparently entered the family’s home through a back door that was usually left open. His dad locked him and his brother into the restaurant and rushed into the kitchen to help save their mother.

Vincent Su and his younger brother decided to exit the restaurant, and ran out on the road screaming for help. He said moments later he heard a loud “bang” and rushed back inside where he saw the two men running away through the back door into the back yard and saw his mother on the ground in a poll of blood with a wound to the center of her face. He then rushed back outside again and raised another alarm but to no avail. The mother was then picked up and taken to the Skeldon hospital where she was pronounced dead on arrival.