It's a harrowing story that ends with the death of the 3-year-old'sfather Kurtis Usher who was executed on his very own doorstep. Cherisse Halsall has the story.

This is 3 year old Kayjay Usher's head - after a bullet from an assault rifle grazed it - coming within millimeters of taking the child's life. He survived because his mother rescued him, as his father, Kurtis Usher ran for cover under a furious hail of gunfire. 21 expended 7.62 shells - the kind used in assault rifles - were found.

Jasmine Williamson, Kurtis's Common Law
"He's good, he's strong. He will miss his Dad because he will miss his Dad."

Jasmine Williamson was Kurtis Usher's common law - she was trapped in her car as an ambush of her partner and son played out before her eyes:

Jasmine Williamson, Kurtis' Partner
"It's an absolute shock. He meant the world to me, he was my G, we hang every day we were always together."

"I was just coming out of the car when we heard the bushes and he was already up here with the baby and when we heard the bushes we looked. And at the same time I was stepping out and I just saw this person come out and started to shoot up and I just got back into the car and closed the door but the baby stayed out here so I had to come out of the car and come to grab the baby and put him in the car with me because I just saw my bwoi run to the back, behind the house but I didn't know, he, I didn't know if he got hurt or so."

Kurtis' brother who spoke to us off camera and called the gunman a coward for shooting indiscriminately and from afar.

Voice of: Oscar Usher, Kurtis Usher's Brother
"It's just a coward person, it's not someone, you want to deal with somebody, just come to face don't be a "B****" behind a man back, wait until his back is turned to do what you want."

We heard much the same from the couple's nephew who also spoke ofF camera, he told us that under such heavy fire, they were only able to act on pure instinct.

Voice Of: Kurtis Usher's Nephew
"It's fast movements you know and when shots are firing, you don't know where they are coming from so sometimes you are just left traumatized for a couple minutes and then you get the sense that this is happening and then you realize but by that time you might have already been shot which that is exactly what happened because by the time that he realized what had happened he was already shot."

Cherisse Halsall:
"But he put the baby down?"

Voice Of: Kurtis Usher's Nephew
"Yeah, he did, you know, while the shots are happening. He didn't expect it so the next thing to do is just run but apparently when he ran it was because he had already been shot."

Cherisse Halsall:
"So now he puts the baby down and he runs, where is the baby's mother at this time?"

Voice Of: Kurtis Usher's Nephew
"Well apparently you know it's a shooting so she is traumatized too, you understand me and she had figured that my uncle had the kid but when she realized that my uncle had run off and the kid was left there by himself that is when she noticed that the young man was injured check and so she tried to come out of the vehicle and render assistance for the baby but apparently she was kind of. Traumatized too because she didn't know if the gunman would come into the yard and continue what they were doing. By the time when she got the. Baby to deal with the baby they time they my uncle was probably gone by then."

Jasmine Williamson, Kurtis's Partner
"That was when I was conscious his head was bleeding. Then I was waiting for my boy to come out from the back but, I was just in there waiting and I couldn't wait anymore so I came out and ran gone to the neighbor and then when I was running past the back there that was when I heard him down there on the ground and I didn't know he had gotten hurt but I couldn't stop so I just continued running. We had a lot of plans, and now they are just broken, I will miss him, noh."

Voice Of: Oscar Usher, Kurtis Usher's Brother
"My brother was my baby brother and I can't say anyone was an angel, you will have, you know, but I am not around him to see what he's doing. When I come around, my brother is a nice person and you know he a jovial person give jokes, friendly to everybody."

But, Saturday night was no joke, it was an ambush and execution, carried out with a high powered assault rifle fired indiscriminately at a family - making it a minor miracle that two persons survived.

Especially notable is that the deceased 36-year-old Kurtis Usher held a licence for his 9mm Smith and Wesson Pistol which was found on him at the time of his death.

We stress that fact tonight because it flies directly in the face of Commissioner Chester Williams's claims that those who have only been detained, not even charged for a firearm offence cannot thereafter access a gun licence.

News reports say that last year a then 35-year-old Kurtis Usher was detained near a Hattieville checkpoint with a .38 revolver containing five live .38 rounds that he could not produce a licence for.

He, along with a companion, was subsequently charged for charged with keeping a firearm and ammunition without a gun license.