Profiles of loved ones lost
Tyquavious Brinkley
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SORRY GOES A LONG WAY
Even before Tyquavious’ murder Madrina would lose sleep just thinking about tragic headlines on the evening news. Yet, when a concerned friend asked the shooter how he was holding up in jail – if he was sleeping well — he was sleeping just fine.
CLICK to walk in honor of Tyquavious Brinkley
That moment everything changed. Madrina now hopes for conversation with the shooter or his family, “Sorry is a small word that goes a long way, she says”
It all began on Spring break in 2009. Tyquavious spent the vacation not too far from home with his cousins. He returned home briefly because Madrina told him that his one year-old brother and sister started to walk that day. At home Tyquavious had dinner with the twins and his 19 year-old sister. His sister asked what he planned for the rest of his spring break. He planned to be safe. Some older boys that he looked up to told him not to hang out because people were getting shot at clubs. He planned to stay at his cousin’s house, out of harm’s way.
News reports say that the man who shot the seventh grader was handling the semiautomatic handgun when it fired.
According to the Children’s Defense fund 2009 report Protect Children Not Guns, the number of children and teens killed in America by guns in 2006 (3,184) is comparable to the number of soldiers killed in action through 9/5/2009 in the conflict in Iraq (3,460).
All the phones in the house started ringing at the same time. Her oldest son didn’t sugar coat anything. “They shot Tyquavious in the head!”
The 20-year old man who shot Tyquavious was friendly with Madrina’s older children. Because she could not imagine this family acquaintance intended to kill her son, Madrina extended the same sympathy she felt for her own family to her son’s murderer. “I told everybody that I am on this boy’s side.”
It’s been one year since the 13-year old Crawford Long Middle School student was murdered. It still doesn’t seem real to Madrina.
“I don’t know how I am making it. . . . My children took it real hard so I had to be there for them.” Madrina tries to visit the cemetery twice a week. She still watches the DVD of his funeral.
In the months after Tyquavious murder, Madrina attended the Atlanta Victim Assistance homicide support group. “Talking about it makes me stronger.”
On May 15, Atlanta Victim Assistance, Inc. will host the Mother’s Walk for Peace to advocate for mother’s like Madrina and for safe communities. Funds and public awareness raised from the Mother’s Walk for Peace will ensure that there are always highly-qualified advocates available to usher families through this painful experience.
REGISTER NOW and Join the Walk for Peace.
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