Death lurks on the streets: Westbury residents tell their story

“I could not even get close to hold her … it was a crime scene, I was told. I stood by and waited for about three hours before her body was removed.” 

Reuben Petersen is mourning the death of his wife, Heather, an innocent bystander  caught up in shoot-out between Westbury gangsters  last week.

She had been with her 10-year-old niece to fetch a school report when she was killed.

Westbury residents told the Sunday Times of the pain and feeling of helplessness underlying violent protests that erupted in the area this week.  

Petersen’s death was the final straw for a community battered by gang wars.

A 73-year-old resident watched his son die in March: “It’s something you never get over, helplessly watching your son bleed to death.”

Read the full story in the Sunday Times.