The Tribune

By Earyel Bowleg

ebowleg@tribunemedia.net

THE grief-stricken mother of the first murder victim of the year said the family has not come to terms with the death of their relative.

Marco Meadows was killed on New Year’s Day leaving behind four children. His mother, Irene Clarke, remains puzzled as to why someone killed her son as he was a “friendly” and “loving” person who would help anybody who needed assistance.

“I try to eat. I can’t eat nothing,” she admitted to The Tribune Thursday. “To me it ain’t feel like he die. I feel like I still waiting on him and every evening I (am) looking for him to come through the door. God give and He take it away – that’s all I say.”

Ms Clarke added that the 36-year-old loved his children as they were “his pride and joy”. His fourth child was born on December 21st last year, just days before his death.

She recalled that Wednesday — the day he was killed — he spent the whole day with her.

"He cooked breakfast for me. I cooked lunch for him. He bring he dirty clothes I was going to wash. I tell him I don’t have no Tide and bleach he said ‘Okay mummy, I gonna buy the Tide and bleach’. He never came back. Never came back to me," she recalled.

Her niece told her of seeing “a lot of cars” at Third Street by Mr Meadows' home. She decided to go with her niece to see what had happened.

So far, Ms Clarke reported, she has not received any updates from the police.

On Thursday, the family received a home visit from the Democratic National Alliance (DNA). They were consoled by DNA leader Arinthia Komolafe, chairman Omar Smith, and the Woman’s Alliance president, Marsha Thompson.

Being a mother herself Mrs Komolafe said she was affected by the story and party members are doing their best to reach out to those affected by the “menace of crime”.

Mrs Komolafe said: "In times like these, it’s very important that you let people know in the community that there are persons there who care and that there are persons who are out there praying for them and that the death of an individual is just not another number added to the homicide rate, but it’s actually something that we feel as a people.

“So I think we just have to always bring awareness to the fact that this is the life of somebody that is being lost and that person’s life is going to be impacted by this (loss).”

According to police, shortly before 10 pm, Meadows was walking on Third Street, Coconut Grove, in the vicinity of Palm Tree Avenue, when the occupants of a black Kia Rio Jeep, fired at him, hitting him in his body before speeding away.

Paramedics were called to the scene where they pronounced him dead.