Family wants to know why youth was shot

by Lyf Compton

The family of Mrie Holder, the 19-year-old mechanic who was shot and killed on Thursday, November 2, would like to know why he was killed.

Mrie, along with Orlando Jackson, a 26-year-old labourer of Cane End, went down in history last week as this country’s 36th and 37th killings for 2017.

Reports are that on Thursday night, both men were walking in Gomea with 21-year-old Mendorra Simmons of Belair, when they were shot and killed. Simmons was shot in her left thigh and is currently a patient at the Milton Cato Memorial Hospital (MCMH). 

Mendorra declined an interview yesterday, stating, “Me nah deal with them things.”

But on Monday, at the Ashburton home of the Holders, Theresa Holder, one of the dead men’s aunt, said the killing is baffling the family and they would like answers.

“I would like to see justice for him. Right now we don’t know who shoot him and we would like to know who shoot him, because right now, he don’t have nothing to do or involve with nobody as far as we know,” said Theresa.

She said family members asked the young woman who was shot if she knew anything, but got no answers.

The distraught woman said she had spoken to her nephew the same day he was killed, and he was his jubilant self, joking with her as usual.

Ruby Holder, Mrie’s grandmother, revealed that she had raised the 19-year-old from the time he was three months old.

“I really feel it, plenty feel it, because I rail (raised) him from three months, so he come like my son. He was a good boy to me, never tell me go to hell or anything,” said the elderly woman.

She added, “Everybody give him good name; he wasn’t a rowdy boy; he make no trouble or nothing, but only to say when he come a big man, he leave home.”

Ruby said she heard about the shooting at about 12:45 a.m. on Friday, November 3, but never got the full details until later that morning.

“I sad; I started to cry, but I can’t do nothing to that. We can’t tell you why somebody wanted to do that to him. We don’t know the reason why,” said Ruby, who added that Mrie had no children.

Also commenting, Arthur Holder, Mrie’s uncle, said that, in his opinion, the crime situation in the country is terrible, “and it getting from bad to worse.”

He is encouraging persons with any information about this shooting or other shootings to cooperate with the police.

“…I can’t see why this shooting and thing going on, this robbing and killing, I just can’t see, I just can’t understand why; this is terrible”, lamented Holder, who noted that Mrie’s father is having problems securing the funds to have a proper burial for the teenager.  

Mrie first came to the attention of the media last month, when he was fined EC$2,500 at the Serious Offences Court for marijuana possession.

The court heard that on October 11, police officers were on mobile patrol in Belair, when they caught Mrie with 2.2 pounds of marijuana. Reports are that he told the police officers he was going to sell the weed.

When he appeared in court, Mrie told Browne-Matthias that he was thrown out of school in Form Three for fighting and he pursued a career in auto mechanics. The court also heard that Mrie was once part of the police’s Drug Assistance Resistance Education (DARE) programme and had a certificate to prove this.

He was fined EC$2,500 and told the court that he would pay the money.

Yesterday, the mother of Orlando Jackson, the other victim of the shooting, said that she would do an interview at another time, as she was not in the frame of mind to talk about the incident yet.

The death of the two young men and the wounding of Simmons brought the number of persons shot last week to five.

At around 8:20 p.m., last week Monday, Anthony “Shadow” Edwards, a local businessman, was shot at Wallilabou Bay. Edwards, proprietor of the Pirate’s Retreat Bar and Restaurant, was at his business place when he was shot in his right arm. Police say that Edwards was shot during a robbery attempt by two masked assailants.

Also, Malachi Kingman, a 58-year-old painter and farmer from Calder, was at his home around 8:28 p.m. Wednesday, when he was shot in his chest and right shoulder. He is currently a patient at the MCMH.

Police are carrying out investigations into the incidents, but up to press time no one had been charged in relation to any of the shootings.