The man who was killed on Monday night in San Juan is 20-year-old Marcus Friday who went to visit his friend, Karin Grant, 19, when the two were ambushed and killed in what police believe was the casualties of an ongoing gang war in the Bagatelle Road, San Juan, area.
Friday was identified by his mother, Sabrina Blair, on Tuesday afternoon at the Forensic Science Centre, St James, but was told to return today for the autopsy after arriving at the institution too late for the autopsy to be performed.
Speaking with the media yesterday, Blair said she woke up at 2 am Tuesday knowing something was amiss when her son, who lived with her at Moses Avenue, San Juan, was not at home.
“Then the phone alarmed at 2 am and I put on the light, looking for him and didn't see him. I was uneasy because he not accustomed doing that.
“I went to work but kept on calling and he was not answering. I was calling his aunt to see if he reach home too. Then my shift done and as I reach home and hit in front my yard where we living, my whole inside start to turn up and then I know something was wrong,” she said.
Blair added that gut-wrenching feeling led her to send her other son to the police station as she searched hospitals and neighbours.
While at the station, a police officer showed Friday’s sibling a picture of the deceased. Blair said her sick feeling went from bad to worse on hearing the news and after seeing her child’s body at the centre yesterday she collapsed.
Of her son, Blair said: “He worked hard and was a very helpful child. You and him could quarrel now and he would come and talk to you normal. He was a child, always playing with people.
“He went to check the girl. He and the girl are friends. I don't know if it's from school but I know it's long time they talking.”
Blair added: “I can’t explain the feeling. It's a feeling only a mother can feel. I feeling empty inside. I feeling lonely like I lost something.
“He was my backbone, my everything. I took him out of school because of how I was living, poverty life, but even then he never give me any trouble and was always working to help the family. He ask me to help him buy a car and build a house but he really wanted a car.
Grant, a cashier, and Friday, a loader at Blue Waters, were believed to be seated on some steps near Grant’s home on Monday night when gunmen ambushed a man passing near the duo.
The man, police said, was believed to have been the killer/s’ target. With an automatic weapon the killer/s struck, hitting their intended target once in the leg and hitting the duo multiple times. That, police said, happened just before 9 pm.