Well if I could tell you what happened I would really give you a full story of what happened but because I wasn’t there I don’t actually know what happened. What I do know is that on the 3rd August I came home, my son was in the house and while I was busy in the kitchen a young man who I had not see for about 2 years, 3 years walked into the house and said “Hello” and I said “Oh how are you, where have you been?” and he said “My car was in the garage” and then he said “Is Dorrie in?” well I didn’t know whether he was in because I’d just come in and so I proceeded to talk to him and a young girl came downstairs, from upstairs because she actually came home with me, and she said “Yes, Dorrie’s in”. So he came down later and he said he wanted some money to go to basketball and I told him I really didn’t have any, I was busy in the kitchen so he should go and ask his sister who was upstairs.
The next thing I know he came down, a couple, maybe about 15 or 20 minutes later and said he was off to basketball and that was the last time I saw him. He left and around ten or after ten at night I heard, the phone rang and I heard a scream and it was the same young girl who had answered the phone and she screamed and said “Junior has been shot” because that’s what we called him, Junior, “he’s been shot”. So I woke up because I’d fallen asleep on the settee, quite dazed and not knowing what to do and proceeded to phone a friend and then, you know, and my daughter was in the house at the time and she was saying, “Mummy are you coming?” and I was just so dazed walking around the room and I said, “No, no, no go on, you go on and leave me” so she went on and left me in the house, which was something I’ve really regretted really when I’ve thought about it, I’ve thought I should have gone with her but I was waiting for my friend who, we were very close, we used to pray a lot together and we’re very close. So by the time I got to the hospital my daughter came walking to us and said “Mummy Junior is dead”.
You didn’t know he was dead before you got there?
No, no I knew when I got there that he was dead.
How terrible. What went through your mind at that time?
Well I was quite dazed, I was quite dazed. Numb I think, as I walked towards the accident and emergency unit. And after my daughter said that and my husband making a grunt, because he was there, I’m not even sure if he was in the car with me, I don’t think he was I think he actually went off with my daughter. And that started a journey that I will never ever forget.
