Grandmother fatally shot in front of grandson after car dispute with neighbor
Courtesy of CNN.
ST. LOUIS (KMOV/Gray News) – A Missouri man is speaking out after his grandmother was shot and killed in front of him during a car-related dispute with a neighbor.
What started as a routine trip to the corner store and back ended in tragedy Tuesday night when 55-year-old Shirley Johnson was fatally shot in front of her St. Louis home, according to her grandson, Markel McCurry.
“Her getting hit was like… it shouldn’t happen,” McCurry said.
He says he was dropping his grandmother off about 9 p.m. when her neighbor, 32-year-old Jamal Jones, claims he saw McCurry back into his car. That’s when St. Louis Metropolitan Police say Jones fired a shot.
“We heard a shot, pow,” McCurry said. “I didn’t realize she was shot.”
McCurry says what happened next was shocking. He got out of the car as he and Jones were talking about the accident and realized his grandmother had been hit.
“I’m saying like, ‘Show me where I hit, if you come down here and show me.’… I go look around and see blood coming from her body. So, now, I’m in shock. I’m in awe,” he said.
McCurry says he restrained Jones until officers arrived and took the suspect into custody. Police say Jones admitted to firing the shot, saying he would have rather hit McCurry than his grandmother.
McCurry says Johnson wasn’t just his grandmother; she was his foundation. After his mother passed, they only had each other.
“She was just very loving and caring,” McCurry said. “My mom passed, so it was just me and her. She meant everything to me, honestly. That’s my best friend.”
Just hours before the shooting, he says he and Johnson had made up after a small disagreement.
“She came to me and said, ‘You still love me, right?’” he said. “I said, ‘You know I love you.’”
McCurry says he does not feel like a hero, despite restraining Jones.
“I appreciate everyone calling me a hero for it,” he said. “I don’t feel like I saved the day. Superheroes save the day. I wasn’t a big enough superhero for not just somebody random but for my grandmother.”
Now, he’s left to process a pain that doesn’t feel real. He says the shooting that killed his grandmother didn’t need to happen.
“She always texts me every time she cook: ‘I’m cooking today, baby.’ So, I know I’m never gonna get them text messages. It hasn’t really set in. We don’t always have to shoot first then talk later when it should be talk first then talk again,” he said.
McCurry set up a GoFundMe to raise money for his grandmother’s funeral.
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