The mother of a 6-year-old boy who was shot and killed while playing with friends in a McComb park on Sunday afternoon said her heart “aches for this city,” which she said must do something immediately to end what has become all too frequent bloodshed.
“This is not something you would expect. You take your kids to the park, you’re not going to bring them back home,” said Kyoukius Washington, the mother of 6-year-old Oterious Marks.
Marks was pronounced dead of a single gunshot wound to the abdomen at Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center after the shooting, which occurred just before 5 p.m. at Central Park. Pike County Coroner Wally Jones said he had been hit with a high-caliber bullet, the victim of a drive-by shooting.
“The crime rate is out of hand, and the recklessness and senselesss ness that got my son killed, I’m angry, I’m so angry,” Washington said.
“I’m angry! I’m angry!”
It was as close to as perfect a Sunday afternoon could get when Marks was playing with his brothers and friends and his mother watched from a nearby picnic table.
Jody Ramee, Marks’ 12-year-old brother, said he saw someone with a gun at the park earlier, but didn’t think the person would be using it.
Then he saw a car come down Minnesota Avenue near the basketball courts and open fire. Ramee watched a man standing next to him on the court get shot in the leg. Then he saw another bullet hit his brother. And then another one grazed Ramee’s arm.
“There were so many guns. They wouldn’t stop shooting,” Washington said.
By the time the gunfire stopped, five people had been hit.
Police Chief Garland Ward said the other victims were 23, 18, 17 and 12. Two were in critical condition, and one of them was airlifted to the University of Mississippi Medical Center in Jackson. The others suffered minor injuries and have been released from the hospital, Ward said.
Police arrested four suspects early Monday morning — Malik Reed, 17, Bryan Cameron, 18, Yajari Jackson, 19, and Bryceon Thompson, 18. All face charges of capital murder and four counts of aggravated assault manifesting extreme indifference to human life. They remained in the Pike County jail with no bond set on Monday morning.
Washington said the shooting should serve as an awakening for McComb. The city is more than familiar with gun violence, but the killing of a young child at a public park “changes everything,” she said.
“I don’t know who the target was in this situation, but I know for sure it wasn’t my 6-year-old son,” she said.
Marks, whose family called him “Bull,” was a first-grader at Otken Elementary School.
“He was lovable. He was fun. He had a whole lot of character. He was a sweet boy,” Washington said. “He was so full of life.”
Washington gathered Monday afternoon with friends, relatives and school officials at the park, which is on the same block as the McComb School District Administration building.
One person held an enlarged photo of her son, as others paced stuffed animals near the blood stain on the basketball court where Marks was hit.
“I’m upset, I’m hurt, I’m distraught. I’m losing my mind,” Washington said as relatives wailed in the background. “I’m sad, extremely sad. My heart is broken. I hate that my baby had to be the sacrifice for this city. My baby is dead.”
Washington said she’s glad arrests have been made, but they won’t bring back her son.
“I have mixed feelings on it,” she said. “I’m happy in a way, but I don’t want it to be next week when they’re roaming the streets and they’re just as free.
“But it will give closure to know who and why would come to a park in broad daylight full of not only my children but other people’s children and ignorantly, shamefully shoot up this neighborhood.”
She doesn’t know what prompted the shooting, but she believes someone at the park was the target.
“I don’t know who specifically was targeted on that playground, but it’s obvious somebody was,” Washington said.
Ward said police will file the same charges against anyone who fired back from the park.
The grief-stricken mother is begging for something to change. She wants those who did this locked up, but she said it’s going to take more than jail to end the violence.
“Please, please save these children. Don’t let the judicial system fail us,” she said. “We need help all the way around — inside the home, outside of the home, we need help all the way around.”
Washington she’ll never forget her son, who she called “the life of the party.”
“He was a real-life character, and I don’t know how I’m going to live without him,” she said. “I have to bury my baby. You can go home to yours, you can kiss yours.”
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To donate to help pay for funeral expenses for Oterious Marks, visit https://gofund.me /0910e061.
