Eight Year Old Shot 7 Times in Multiple Homicide!

A caller’s words to one of the call-in talk shows less than a month ago reverberated like the bullets that killed eight year old Marquis Mahler when she said that soon the street violence would start to target the innocent women and children of rival gangs. On Friday, July 9th when a barrage of gunfire blasted like a roll of pop-shots being set off on Faber’s Road Extension shortly after midday, no one could have thought that it was a heartless killer seeking out two innocent people, one of them an eight year old boy.

The gunman was inside a blue car that pulled up and opened fire on Calvin Graham, 48, a father of seven who had just purchased a fried chicken and was riding back to work.  Graham suffered multiple bullet wounds from an M 16 rifle, an automatic assault weapon used only in the military.  Graham did not have a chance; he died almost instantly.  So many bullets were fired at him that officers did not even bother to mark and remove all – altogether, 22!

Little Marquis was in a yard across from that brutal murder sitting on a flight of stairs when the attack occurred.  His big step brother alerted the family when the first shot rang out and dashed inside.  But Marquis was shot as he ran for cover down the stairs; the ruthless killer emptying the rest of his weapon at the little boy as he ran.  He too was hit multiple times and clung to life for most of the weekend but his condition worsened on Sunday when the blood flow to his brain had become insufficient.  He underwent surgery but that did not help and he succumbed later on Sunday.

A teenage girl who was grazed by a bullet is doing fine.  Some speculate that the children were targeted because they have relatives with whom the gunman or the mastermind has had personal conflict.  But who from the little boy’s family would anyone want dead and why?  His family has been targeted numerous times before.  A few months ago his uncle, Cecil Lewis was shot at while in the same yard, which is not far from a police substation.  In similar fashion, he was sitting on the verandah when a vehicle neared the house and someone inside sprayed bullets at him.  Lewis managed to escape with minor injuries.  So far, police are yet to make an arrest for the senseless killings of his nephew and Calvin Graham.

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