ISSUE
Friday, August 22, 2025
Volume 16 . Issue 73
An elderly Fiji woman was shot dead while her son is in critical condition in California, United States.
Sushila Prasad, 67, of Ba flew out to Richmond, California, to visit her son Dinesh Kumar, 46, a school district custodian, his wife Saroj, a nurse and their children aged 16 and 12 years.
At 4am on Friday, Mrs Kumar was cooking breakfast when she saw a man in the kitchen. She called out to her husband, who was then involved in a scuffle with the intruder and was shot several times in the process.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the elderly Ms Prasad walked in to find out what was happening when she was fatally shot.
The family migrated to the US seven years ago and moved into their Moran Ave home a year ago. A neighbour, Darnell Jacobs, 63, was in shock.
"The husband worked hard as hell to make it look like something. It was a wreck," he said.
"The family is religious and invited friends once or twice a month for prayer meetings.
"This shouldn't happen to a family like that. This shouldn't happen to any family."
A week prior to the shooting, Mrs Kumar and Ms Prasad were robbed at gun point, a block away, Police Chief Chris Magnus said.
Referring to people out on parole or probation, Magnus said "this is a horrific, shocking crime that is very uncharacteristic for this neighbourhood”.
"We just have way too many violent people out in the community at large, and people think that it's just Richmond, but unfortunately as we've seen, it's not limited to Richmond," he said.
Police arrested a 21-year-old parolee on suspicion of murder and were seeking another parolee, authorities said.
The community got together to raise funds for the family, a bank account called “The Kumar Family Benefit” was set up.
- Mary Rauto
An elderly Fiji woman was shot dead while her son is in critical condition in California, United States. Sushila Prasad, 67, of Ba flew out to Richmond, California, to visit her son Dinesh Kumar, 46, a school district custodian, his wife Saroj, a nurse and their children aged 16 and 12 years. At...
An elderly Fiji woman was shot dead while her son is in critical condition in California, United States.
Sushila Prasad, 67, of Ba flew out to Richmond, California, to visit her son Dinesh Kumar, 46, a school district custodian, his wife Saroj, a nurse and their children aged 16 and 12 years.
At 4am on Friday, Mrs Kumar was cooking breakfast when she saw a man in the kitchen. She called out to her husband, who was then involved in a scuffle with the intruder and was shot several times in the process.
According to the San Francisco Chronicle, the elderly Ms Prasad walked in to find out what was happening when she was fatally shot.
The family migrated to the US seven years ago and moved into their Moran Ave home a year ago. A neighbour, Darnell Jacobs, 63, was in shock.
"The husband worked hard as hell to make it look like something. It was a wreck," he said.
"The family is religious and invited friends once or twice a month for prayer meetings.
"This shouldn't happen to a family like that. This shouldn't happen to any family."
A week prior to the shooting, Mrs Kumar and Ms Prasad were robbed at gun point, a block away, Police Chief Chris Magnus said.
Referring to people out on parole or probation, Magnus said "this is a horrific, shocking crime that is very uncharacteristic for this neighbourhood”.
"We just have way too many violent people out in the community at large, and people think that it's just Richmond, but unfortunately as we've seen, it's not limited to Richmond," he said.
Police arrested a 21-year-old parolee on suspicion of murder and were seeking another parolee, authorities said.
The community got together to raise funds for the family, a bank account called “The Kumar Family Benefit” was set up.
- Mary Rauto
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