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Joycelyn Didn’t Make It
posted (June 18, 2010)
Last night we had breaking news of a 19 year old female who was shot at the corner of Vernon and Sibun streets. When we closed the news last night, she was still clinging to life at the KHMH - even though she had been shot to her temple. Well, she didn't make it. Monica Bodden has been on the story since yesterday evening and she has all the details from the scene of the shooting to the aftermath.

Monica Bodden, Reporting
This is where the shooting happened at the corner of Vernon and Sibun streets at 6:15pm. Armed soldiers stood guard over the embattled neighborhood while bystanders looked on in stunned, shaken disbelief as the scenes of crime team searched for expended shells under the car that the victim 19 year old Joycelyn Mitchell was sitting on. As many as 22 shots were let go in a hail of gunfire and the scenes of crime team had to comb a wide area.

Julie Mitchell sat in the middle of the array of bullet markers; she had been sitting with her sister in law Joycelyn on the car when she was shot. Police mobiles whipped about going right into the snarl of evening traffic in pursuit of suspects.

The family meanwhile was looking for hope, here at the emergency ward at the KHMH. Her large family streamed into the hospital hoping against hope that somehow the teenager would live through it. Despite being shot in the head, Joycelyn survived for a little over an hour - but when she expired at 7:40. It sent a wave of grief rippling across the gathering. The women of the family shook their heads in incomprehension and when they were given a last chance to see her they went in arm in arm. they came out, shattered deeply devastated. The silhouette of all these family members set against the emergency room where their teenaged sister, daughters, cousin and wife lay dead and as I consoled this grief stricken survivor last night, today the emotion was just as raw as her sister recounted the details of the shooting:

Julie Mitchell, Sister
"I didn't even pick up her because I don't want to see my little sister dead down there, so I didn't pick her up. I wait until my brother came and ask my brother to pick her up and he said that she is still breathing, I didn't even touch her until she was in the vehicle and I was praying with her and tell her to hold on, I didn't sleep I cried all night because I blame myself for being there and couldn't even help my little sister."

The grief was overwhelming today as Julie Mitchell the victim's older sister recounted the terror and helplessness of seeing her sister shot down in front of their family home. Julie was standing at the corner of Vernon and Sibun Street - just a couple yards away from Jocelyn at the time of the shooting.

According to her, a lone gun man rode past on a bicycle and opened fire in front of this silver Mitsubishi Galant that Jocelyn and 3 other persons were sitting on.

Julie Mitchell
"All the boys through the alley sit down and I know that it was them they were coming after. But as he (gunman) reach by my car that my sister was sitting on he start to shoot because as he pass by me I saw the gun and I spin around and yell and as I did that he was already shooting. I look and saw them running, I start to run towards them because my son was there and she was running towards me, I thought she didn't got shot but when I glance again she stumble down and lie in the drain dead. They thought she was dead. We took her in the police vehicle and I was talking to her telling her to fight for her life. But I was watching and I knew she was going to die because her eyes were not moving, she put her hands on me and I just hold her hands and pray to God to put his healing hands on her but she still die."

Joycelyn's mother also saw the gunman.

Jennifer Staine, Mother
"The boy come from cross the bridge over this side and he ride there and start to shoot. He then ride pass and went through back-a-town areas."

Monica Bodden
"Where was the one who was standing up yelling gunman?"

Jennifer Staine
"Right there by the bridge where the cars were turning. I was right there."

Monica Bodden
"Now Joycelyn and who were sitting on the car?"

Jennifer Staine
"She and a girl name Kia."

Monica Bodden
"Only two of them were sitting on the car?"

Jennifer Staine
"Only two of them and the kids that were playing on the other side."

Monica Bodden
"So when the young man yelled gunman that was when Kia jumped off the car. Did Joycelyn jump off the vehicle at the same time?"

Jennifer Staine
"Kia said she told Joycelyn to run. But at that time she already got shot. Because when I ran from where I was standing talking to my sister, my daughter was already in the drain."

Father of the deceased, Osmond Mitchell was around the lane when the shooting occurred. He said he heard about 7 gunshots was then told by someone that his youngest daughter 19 year old Jocelyn had been shot. When he got there, all he could do was hold on:…

Osmond Mitchell Sr., Father "When I went there I hold her two hands."

Monica Bodden
"You went and held your daughter's two hands, she was already in the drain."

Osmond Mitchell
"Yea, I raise up her and I saw the blood."

Monica Bodden
"She was shot in the head right?"

Osmond Mitchell
"Yea."

Monica Bodden
"Right then and there you thought, well you know what, she might not make it?"

Osmond Mitchell
"I know she would not make it."

Monica Bodden
"She was conscious at this time?"

Osmond Mitchell
"She was never really conscious. The police came and they put her in there and took her and when I went to the hospital they say that they were working on her. Later on they call me and they say that she pass away."

19 year old Jocelyn Mitchell was shot to the head. The bullet penetrated her temple and exited on the other side. The execution of a teenaged female in the street is another first, but she was most likely not the target. Police suspect that her brother known as Minky may have been the target:

Julie Mitchell
"I had always expected something to happen because people always come here and shoot up. I always tell my mom that I don't want my son to play in the yard; I don't want him on the veranda because he could get shot on the veranda. If you look at the front of our house the zinc is loaded with bullet holes because they come to shoot up here every time."

For this family and community, they are still battling with the tragic death of this young woman - known to everyone as just simply a cool, loving person.

Julie Mitchell
"Joycelyn don't go anywhere, she don't go to the club, Joycelyn don't do anything. Joycelyn go to her house and when her boyfriend goes to work she comes here by me. Joycelyn doesn't go anywhere. Sometimes my son and I go to her house at night to sleep there or one of her friends goes to sleep at their house. Joycelyn doesn't go anywhere."

Monica Bodden
"She doesn't interfere with anybody?"

Julie Mitchell
"No interference with anybody because she is in love with her boyfriend that she don't have time to look at anybody." And even more troubling for this family is that they feel her death will go, "just like that."

Julie Mitchell
"I want justice but I don't see justice coming. If I look at history no justice will come somebody might get pick up but they will come out right back."

Reporting for Seven News, I am Monica Bodden.

Police report that they have detained Jervis Valencia in connection with the shooting. He has not been charged. Valencia just got off an attempted murder charge in April when the victim Frederick "Diggy-Dap" Lynch could not be found.

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