Another mother is tonight mourning for her son. 20-year-old Shane Leslie was killed execution style last night on Amara Avenue and tonight the police's prime suspect is once again a teenager. He hasn't been formally charged yet but the Shane Leslie murder has his mother crying out for an end to the violence. Keith Swift reports.
Keith Swift Reporting,
Shane Leslie was killed here on Amara Avenue around 9:45 last night. He family says he had gone to 'Kick Down Fence' to buy food and on his way back, he stopped to talk to his girlfriend on Amara Avenue. He had finished talking to girlfriend and was about to ride off when a gunman approached him and opened fire. Marilyn Dixon who lives on Amara Avenue heard three shots which she says woke her up.
Marilyn Dixon, Heard Gunshots
"After I finished watching TV I went into the room after the boledo played and as I laid down I heard the three shots, that is all I heard and saw the crowd running."
The body of 20-year-old Shane Leslie lay here on the street where you now see these bloodstains. He had been shot twice, once to the head and once to the back. He apparently died instantly. The news has devastated his mother Bernadette Egwuatu.
Bernadette Egwuatu, Mother of Murder Victim
"Its really hard for me. I always asked the Good Lord to please not let this happen to me and I always asked why because this wasn't supposed to happen."
Bernadette says Shane wasn't a saint but he also wasn't a troublemaker. And what's disturbing for this mother is that she says her son was killed over the girl he had stopped to talk to on Amara Avenue....and she says it was by someone he knew.
Bernadette Egwuatu,
"I don't know why they would kill him for his girl. If he (the killer)
had a problem, he could have come and told me because that little boy grew up with Shane. He was around Shane and everything and it for a girl, and then me and his mom are close. I am in and out of their house so I don't see why he would do something like that. If he and Shane had a problem, he could have come to me and we could have solved that easily without him having to shot my son."
In a way the grief over the tragic loss of her son is doubled for Bernadette Egwuatu because yesterday she helped her close friend Semona Bacab bury her son Jomo Lamb who was murdered only a week ago. Bernadette could never have imagined that hours later - her son would meet a similar fate.
Bernadette Egwuatu,
"I didn't know I would have been in this position. I was without Semona at her wake, I was right around with her helping her and thing and I couldn't believe that I would be feeling the same way like how she feels the next day. I didn't know I would wake up and not see my son anymore. I don't know, I don't know."
Shane Leslie had recently gotten a job working weekends on a ship with his cousin Herman. They were supposed to leave today to go work but Shane didn't survive the night. Today Herman told me off camera that he lost more than just a cousin and a co-worker - he lost a friend who was genuinely trying to change his life.
Herman, Cousin and Friend of Deceased
"He was glad for his job and he was glad to be off the street. He wasn't a trouble man but according to society as you drop out of school you are a trouble man and you are a gangbanger. They have enough youths out here willing to make a change, they just want a job but because of criminal records and offenses, people scorn them but some of them want to make a change and Shane was one of them. I will miss that man, serious."
Serious indeed and in her grief, Bernadette Egwuatu today made a sober call for an end to the street violence and for youths to put down the guns which has left her and many other mothers weeping.
Bernadette Egwuatu,
"I don't know why those little boys don't put down those guns. Unu put down those guns, it is necessary. It is really not necessary. A lot of mothers are out here. They have to find a place when those boys do their first offense with a gun, they have to find somewhere to put them. Find somewhere because if you use a gun once you will always want to use a gun because a murderer will always be a murderer.
And you hear those little boys when they are sitting down on the street corner, they are boasting about who they killed and how they got off and its like it's a show to them. We are out here trying to bring up our kids the proper way, the right way, and then someone just comes and takes away your valuables from you because your child is your valuable. They are your happiness, they make you feel happy.
I am asking the men, and I am asking those people who are around and who are giving those little boys guns to please stop that, stop that. That is not necessary. We aren't seeing our future tomorrow. Who will be our lawyers, who will be our doctors, who will be our nurses? They have to stop that, they have to rest that. I am asking for the Minister, I asking for Mr. Barrow, I am asking for everybody who can help me to please make those little boys put down those guns because those guns need to be put down. Justice has to come, it has to..." [Sobbing.]
And that justice is about the only solace for Bernadette as she prepares to bury her youngest son.
Again police have a teenager detained. We are told he is not a minor.
