Our Story

It took years for me to piece together what actually happened thatnight. I shared with the student body, what I understood to be the turn
of events that led to the tragedy. Some parts of it we will never know,
but I shared with them as best as I could. Our next-door neighbor owed
Tracy some money. The neighbor’s daughter came over to our house
and told Tracy her mother was in a crack house smoking her money up
with the neighbor’s brother. Tracy was upset and went to the house
looking for her. She found her and asked for her money. The lady
started to curse and resolved that she was not going to give Tracy
anything.” Tracy told her simply, “You WILL give me my money”
and she began to walk away. The lady threw a beer can at Tracy and
all hell broke loose. Tracy started to walk away but didn’t. After the
lady throw the beer can Tracy went back to confront her further and
that was when, Charles, the woman’s son, came out and begin to hit
Tracy. My other sister Danielle then joined in the altercation. One of
their friends went to tell my mother about the fight. My mom and my
brother Ronnie went down the alley from our house where my sisters
were to see what was going on. This is where the story gets fuzzy for
me. It was not clear then and it still is not clear who had the gun. The
gun was there and it was in Charles’s hand. He shot Tracy first as his
mother looked on and screamed, “Kill all of them.”

Charles turned the gun on Ronnie and shot him, then Danielle.
My mother could not stand by and watch her children be shot down by
this man as if they were nothing. She jumped on Charles and struggled
with him for the gun. In the process, my mother was shot twice, once
in the head and a second time in the leg. She managed enough strength
to wrestle the gun away from him; it was then she shot and killed him.
It’s crazy how in a few minutes your life changes completely.
Our mother warned Tracy that the neighbor was going to be the
cause of her death. She told her if you keep messing with her and her
family, she is going to be the cause of Stacey growing up without a
mother and you being dead. And in a couple of days her words rang
true and our lives were changed forever.

When I got to the part where my mother shot and killed Charles,
the whole auditorium erupted in cheer. Was there anything to cheer
about in this situation? I am more than grateful to my mother for doing
what she did and I understand her reasoning for her actions, but there
were no winners in this situation. Both families lost. It is fair for me
say that Charles was high on drugs the night he turned a gun on my
family. I do not know if he had been sober if the outcome of the
situation would have been different. I wish and pray that it would
have, but what’s done is done. We just had to learn from it and go on.
While my classmates cheered my mom like a hero at the end of a fairy
tale, I didn’t have the words to explain to them that resolution doesn’t
come that easy. I couldn’t silence their cheers and take them through
the journey of my pain. I wanted to scream to the top of my lungs and
tell them that Charles’ life was not as ransom for what had been stolen
from my family on that day was greater. I couldn’t tell them about the
mental breakdowns my mother suffered or the visions of my sister in
my mind that plagued me from time to time.

They wouldn’t understand that part of it – so I left them in a happy place, though I
was stripped emotionally and damaged spiritually. I let the applause
echo in my head for moments after, when it was silent. I simply
thanked them for their attention, but they had no idea of the story
behind the story. I wish I would have told them be careful what you
cheer for. That ending was not a happy ending at all.

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