By RICARDO WELLS

Tribune Staff Reporter

rwells@tribunemedia.net

THE fatal shooting of her 23-year-old mentally ill son, Lorenzo “Renzo” Bain, by police on Friday has left Starretta Bain and her family “emotionally wrecked”.

The mother of eight now has a host of unanswered questions as she plans to bury her “quiet and loving son”.

She revealed that her son had recently been released from the Sandilands Rehabilitation Centre, following a previous run-in with police. During that earlier altercation, he was also shot, she told The Tribune, adding that officers alleged her son had a knife at a gas station.

“I have to identify the body. That is what my kids are telling me today, but I left Renzo in the room and I want it so bad for him to still be in there,” said Mrs Bain, her voice shaking during a telephone interview with The Tribune on Sunday.

“I can’t believe Renzo gone, but that is what my kids are telling me. I left him home, in his bed, I told my kids to keep to an eye on him until I got back from work. He was in his bed, I saw him before I left. He was in his bed, he should still be there.”

That is how Mrs Bain, a native of Andros and proud mother and wife, summed up her last interaction with her son who was fatally shot by police on Blue Hill Road south on Friday.

According to reports, the 23-year-old held up a shop owner and stole a loaded shotgun. He took to the street with the weapon a short time later, leading several alarmed motorists and residents to phone police in fear.

“The neighbour said she sent him to the shop for a soda,” Mrs Bain said. “She does it from time to time and nothing like this ever happens. One man that was in the shop said Renzo walked on to a wet part of the floor and that got the shop owner upset.”

What followed, according to Mrs Bain, was a series of avoidable events that ended with her son “face down, shot to death like a dog.”

“Everyone in the community knows my son, they know my children. Renzo wasn’t violent unless provoked. Something happened in that store to trigger his episodes. “While I am not blaming anyone in particular, it just hurts so much because it has been a tough couple of years for my son and to lose him like this. No words can ease my heart now because I don’t want my neighbours, the country, the world to remember my son as a thief, as an armed man storming in a shop trying to rob it. That wasn’t my child; he didn’t have a need to do that. Something triggered him in that store and that is all I want to get out there.”

Mrs Bain said her son, a graduate of Carlton Francis Primary School and former student at S C McPherson, first used drugs while in junior high school.

His first experience with marijuana, paired with the loss of his sister who died around that time, led him to his first psychological episode, she said.

“As the young kids like to say, he was ‘laced’ and he was never the same from that point,” she said, using a colloquial term referring to a drug being tainted with a more harmful substance.

Mrs Bain said from that point on, she and her husband struggled to help their son.

“We did all we could to get him the help he needed. He was in and out of counselling. Medical doctors would see him regularly, and we prayed non-stop for his recovery.

“Renzo had an episode with police earlier this year. They shot him at that point too. Police told me he had a knife and approached a man at Porky’s gas station.

“They shot him in the leg. He spent a month in the hospital and then went to Sandilands to be evaluated. Doctors ruled that he was unfit to stand trial and kept him there for a long period of time.

“They placed him on medication, then changed it because it was not agreeing with him. Later on they got him to a point where he could be around people and communicate with them.

“When he got back home, we kept him as close to the house as we could because we feared that any extreme situation could trigger him and set him off.

“That is what happened Friday. They called me and told me he went outside. I told them to get him back in and that I was coming home shortly. I was too late,” the grief-stricken mother said.

“We wanted him back to Sandilands because we could see he wasn’t doing well, over the last couple of weeks. He needed medication and they told me he had to come there to be properly treated. I couldn’t get him to go and had made plans with my brother to get him in a car and get him there. Again, I was too late.

“When I got the call that he was in the road with a gun I panicked. I was rushing to get home. My son was trying to get him to come home, the police showed up and Renzo, probably scared started to run away from them. Now we have all seen the videos (circulating online). I was too late.”

Mrs Bain said she has been asked to go to the Central Detective Unit (CDU) this week.

Circumstances surrounding the shooting are still under investigation.