Screams, blood, tears
6-y-o killed in freak shooting as woman loses third grandchild
Published:Wednesday | December 8, 2021 | 12:10 AM
Little T-Mora McCallum would have celebrated her seventh birthday on December 27, offering the family added cheer just after Christmas.
But instead of a celebration, distraught grandmother Monica Spraggs and cousins who live on Text Lane in central Kingston are now preparing to plan her funeral.
T-Mora was fatally shot after 3 p.m. on Monday in a yard when a weapon reportedly being cleaned by a 55-year-old man discharged, the bullet hitting her in the abdomen.
Reliving the agony, a resident pointed to the bloodstained area on the road where the child fell in the presence of other children who knew her well.
“From mi hear she scream out and dem seh she drop pan her face, mi know she dead. She tek her last breath right deh suh,” said the resident, who declined to have her name published.
T-Mora and her parents once lived in the community but have since relocated to Waltham Park Road in St Andrew.
Spraggs was grief-stricken on Tuesday as she and neighbours gathered at the death scene.
Tragedy has haunted Spraggs’ household, as T-Mora is the third grandchild she has lost.
Renae Dixon, who lived in Portmore, St Catherine, was shot in the back amid an apparent robbery while she was heading to work.
Her eldest grandddaughter, Taleta Robinson, succumbed to illness.
A teary-eyed Spraggs was perplexed about the circumstances of the shooting death of T-Mora, who attended St Aloysius Primary School in central Kingston.
The grandmother described T-Mora as “genuine and nice” and who loved to dance.
The accused, who fled in the aftermath of the fatal shooting, returned to the community Monday night and was nearly mauled by a mob. He was beaten and chopped several times by residents before the arrival of the security forces.
The gun had not been turned over to the police up to press time.
“When we ah ask him fi di gun, him seh him nah have no gun, and him tell di soldier dem seh ah lie we ah tell, ah nuh him ... and it look like di owner fi di gun come and tek it.”
The accused man is being treated at hospital under police guard.