The moth­er of mur­dered busi­ness­woman Tri­cia Ma­haraj is call­ing on busi­ness own­ers—par­tic­u­lar­ly women—to be al­lowed to arm them­selves for pro­tec­tion.

Speak­ing with Guardian Me­dia at her daugh­ter’s River­side Road, St Joseph home yes­ter­day, Cindy Bali­ram de­scribed the men who killed her daugh­ter as “cow­ards” who had pre­vi­ous­ly threat­ened her.

“She made nu­mer­ous re­ports to the St Joseph Po­lice Sta­tion of threats be­ing made to her, and noth­ing was re­al­ly done. They would just take the re­port and leave it at that. They are cow­ards. Be­cause who would shoot down a woman and then run? They are cow­ards,” she said.