WSVN — He was just a kid. A happy helpful 16-year-old teenager.
Wanda McMillan: "He was like the strength of the family. He always kept me laughing, always kept me smiling."
Notice Wanda uses the word was when she talks about her son Marquez. He was wonderful, now he is gone.
Wanda McMillan: "What they did to my family is unbearable, and I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy."
On June 14th, 2008 Marquez went to a party at JJs Diner in Coral Gables when a fight started he called an aunt to come get him and walked across the street to a gas station to meet her.
Sgt. Doug McCoy: "Just as Marquez James was about to enter the back seat of the Expedition that his aunt was driving, gunshots were heard and people started running."
Wanda McMillan: "When I got the call it was 1:30 in the morning from my cousin that Marquez was shot."
At the Ryder Trauma Center doctors told Wanda words she wishes she could forget.
Wanda McMillan: "And told me that the damage he received was irrevocable. He was clinically brain dead."
Wanda sat with her son then pulled the plug herself. A 16-year old dead, another good life wasted.
Patrick Fraser: "Police believe there were two shooters and that they hid in the dark shadows of this alley and fired away, that means the bullet that killed Marquez came from over 250 feet away. A difficult shot for an expert. Almost an impossible shot for an amateur, meaning Marquez probably wasn't even the target."
Sgt. Doug McCoy: "We don't feel that he was an intended target it might have been something to scare the other party goers or juveniles."
But Marquez is dead, the two killers got away. Word on the street pointed the finger at two people Wanda confronted them.
Wanda McMillan: "We went round to the ones that we know who did it. We went to there families and told them to come forward, that your son did this to my child and all they say was my child didn't do this, my child didn't do that."
Miami-Dade police say they also talked to those people, but the law requires more than word on the street to put two men behind bars..
Sgt. Doug McCoy: "We interviewed them at great length here at our homicide bureau office and as I said before, we need solid evidence we need eyewitness testimony and we still don't have any of that."
Wanda is begging for some witnesses to come forward to give detectives something to go on.
Wanda McMillan: "It's hard. It's hard. I need some closure."
In the meantime, she tries to tell herself that Marquez is still alive before she let the doctors pull the plug she made sure Marquez's body lived on.
Wanda McMillan: "It was uplifting because my son lives through five people now and the one really touched me was the 16-year old girl who has his kidney and heart because I know she's got a heart of gold.
Giving those five people new lives made her smile. Seeing the two people she thinks killed her son alive makes her stew.
Wanda McMillan: "That these kids can get away with this and think it's OK, and brag about it, and I hear different things that they done did to other people's kids."
If someone doesn't make an anonymous call, Marquez's killers will soon kill more kids you can bet on it. If you have any information on the murder of Marquez James, give call Crimestoppers a call. The family is hoping and praying that someone will step up.
FOR MORE INFORMATION:
Out for JusticeMIAMI-DADE: 305-598-HELPBROWARD: 954-796-HELP