“Put down the guns and turn to God,” cried 80-year-old great-grandmother Lucy Mitchell, after her close friend was fatally shot during her (Mitchell’s) birthday celebration in Penal on Sunday.
Quintin Marcano, 65, of Cameron Hill, Maraval, had spent the day at Mitchell’s home at Rochard Road, cooking and liming with friends, before tragedy struck. Mitchell’s birthday was on February 14.
When Guardian Media visited yesterday, Mitchell and her family were in tears and trying to come to terms with the situation.
The elderly woman recalled that she was in the gallery, while Marcano was sitting on a chair near a shed in front of the house with her (Mitchell’s) relatives at 5.30 pm, when she heard several gunshots. Initially, Mitchell thought they were just random, as she is accustomed to hearing gunshots in the community, but then she heard her relatives bawling.
Sobbing and wiping away her tears, the elderly woman recalled that she wanted to go to her friend’s assistance, but her son stopped her.
Marcano was shot in the neck and died before they could get her to the Siparia Health Facility.
Last month, resident Nicholas Morgan was gunned down in his yard, two houses away from Mitchell’s home, and a few years ago, she also lost one of her sons to gun violence.
“It’s so hard. I want to tell young people to put down the gun and turn to God, who made them and put them in this world... They’ve thrown away God from their hearts,” she lamented.
She added, “I wouldn’t hear her voice again. I wouldn’t see her again. We wouldn’t spend time together. The birthday was so nice. We had a nice prayer time.”
Mitchell’s 48-year-old daughter, who asked not to be named, recalled she was liming with Marcano that evening.
“We heard gunshots ring out. My cousin said, ‘They’re shooting a gun! Run!’ Everybody ran from the road. When we turned around, we realised she hadn’t come off the chair. We called out to her. I thought she fainted. But then we saw blood coming down her clothes.”
She said her niece was close by with her newborn baby and four other children when the shooting started, and they had to scamper to safety.
Lamenting that there was too much “stupid shooting,” she appealed to people to surrender their guns.
“Half of the people being killed are innocent. People are getting shot because of others’ stupidity. The authorities have to do something.”
Describing Marcano as a helpful and loving person, she said her family deserves justice and closure.
Another relative believed the shooting was “gunplay,” with shots being fired indiscriminately with no real target. Mitchell’s grandson Joel John, 20, called for justice and warned young people that a life of crime would eventually lead to their deaths.
Homicide Bureau Region III investigators are still trying to determine a motive for Marcano’s killing.
