NASSAU, BAHAMAS — Kissie Brown-Pratt says she can’t sleep without hearing the voice of her slain child crying out after the 13-year-old was killed in Kemp Road on Friday.
She says when she found her son lying on his stomach in William’s Lane with his hands to his side, she knew instantly he was dead.
“I know one day he woulda had to die,” she told Eyewitness News yesterday.
“I know one day all of us have to die. But it ain where he die, it’s how he die that’s really hurting me. A small 13-year-old boy, no weight, tiny baby. You could see he’s a baby. To take two shots, one behind his neck and one in his jaw, that’s really hurtful for a mother to stand here and say. Other people could go to sleep at night whilst I crying all night.”
Quinton McKenzie loved music and sports and was the grandson of the late Bahamian entertainer Smokey 007, according to his family. Police say a boy is in custody assisting them with his murder investigation.
Brown-Pratt said she was outside her home around 8pm on Friday when she fell to the ground after hearing gunshots. She said when she got up to go inside she heard more gunshots.
“Like (the gunshots) wouldn’t stop,” she said. “So I screamed and I hollered for my husband, ‘baby baby let’s go the children on the park. I say Lord have mercy on my children, I pray to God it’s none of my children what get shoot. I just keep saying have mercy Lord, have mercy please cover my children.”
The pair checked a park and saw people running away but saw no sign of a shooting. She said on their way home they encountered one of their nephews who told them Quinton was on the ground laying flat on his stomach.
As she ran towards the scene, she says, she felt like “all my chest, my heart was tearing open.”
“And then I get there to see my baby laying down on his stomach with his hands beside him not moving,” she said. “I did already know he was dead. When my son got there and grab him up his tongue was hanging out his mouth. I did done know he was dead. My husband stand over him with his hands over his head like what this is. I almost die, I couldn’t believe that was my 13-year-old.”
“What happened? Why would someone shoot a little boy? Am I in a dream? Is this for real? Someone please wake me up, if I’m in a dream let me know. Why would somebody come on a park where it’s supposed to be for kids, for children to come and play…you mean to tell me now the park isn’t safe for children to go on, for kids to go and play? My child shouldn’t have to go out like that.”
Brown-Pratt said Quinton was the life of the party at home, school and everywhere else. She said her son was an honor roll student “from pre-school,” played five instruments and loved baseball, basketball, soccer and karate. He dreamed of becoming a baseball player and he worked at Super Value to save money for college.
“I don’t think he was supposed to go out like that,” she said.
“I haven’t slept like that. I ain eating, just drinking tea and eating crackers. Every time I try to sleep it’s like I hearing him crying to me, I hearing his voice. I can’t sleep, I ain have no peace until they find who murdered my son.”
“This really hurting me. I don’t know where to go from here, I don’t know how to go on.”
She said Quinton had just gotten off from work at Super Value and went to the basketball court when he was killed. She said her son was not gambling as some rumored.
“If you know him like I know him, you’d know he wasn’t gambling, not my Quinton,” she said. “He was counting his money. Every time you always see him he counting his money.”
Brown-Pratt found out during her interview with Eyewitness News that police has a juvenile in custody connected to the matter.
“I still ain happy,” she said. “I still trying to figure out why. Why Quinton, such a sweet soul?”
Quinton’s father, Quincy Mckenzie, was in Exuma when his son was killed.
He said around the time his son was killed he sent Quinton a voice note but got no response. Soon after he sent the message, the boy’s mother called him to say Quinton was shot. However, he said he assumed his child had survived but was taken to the hospital.
“I continued to hang out with my coworkers until one of my coworkers got a message from her family group on Whatsapp,” he said. “She looked at the photo and said this your son here and she show me it and I coulda see and I break down. The next morning I catch a flight out, which means I haven’t seen him for two weeks because I was over there for the past two weeks and a half.”
“I’m tryna figure how my life will be from here, you know what I mean? I just can’t see it being the same anymore. Cus I know if I was here, if I didn’t go to Exuma––not saying taking the trip was a bad thing––but it was a holiday; we probably woulda been on the beach.”
