It is hard to find a family in the city which has been more wracked by violence than the Matura's of Central American Boulevard. Four members have been killed, and others shot. The most recent murder had been in March when Raymundo Chun was killed.
And now there is one more to add to the list of casualties. Mark Matura was killed in his own family yard around ten on Friday night - shot to the head by an intruder who skipped into the yard, gun blazing.
His aunt - who asked to appear off camera - told Monica Bodden about the terrifying event:
Voice of Aunt
"I am his auntie but I am like his mother. I love him just like how I love all my nine children. I feel in my heart that he is my son, I love him miss, I love Mark to my heart and then he comes here every time to enjoy himself. That Friday night those two persons came like the devil and nearly kill the three of them, they kill him because he couldn't move - he freeze."
Monica Bodden Reporting
Around 9:30 on Friday night, 20 year old Mark Matura was sitting on a bicycle talking to two of his cousins when two men jumped the back fence of his family's yard and one fired a shot at him.
Voice of Aunt
"Two persons went by that little house over there and they walk up to my nephew and they kill him and then they went through the gate like nothing happen."
Matura was shot to the right side of his head and died.
His brother Reymundo Chun was recently murdered in March of this year - just a block away from their family home.
For his family, they feel they are being targeted but say they have no idea, why.
Voice of Aunt
"Yes because I don't know why. I don't know if it is because they don't like us. People say that they didn't like us but we are good people miss. We are kind hearted people. We have life hard, so why are people doing this to us. They have us in pain. We do not disturb anybody."
According to Matura's aunt, last night around 8 o'clock, someone else was trying to get inside the yard.
Monica Bodden
"So he is not a person that hangs out - a gang banger."
Voice of Aunt
"No, he is not in any gang. I can kiss that ground, I am telling you from God that he is not a gang banger. He is good person. They kill him already and they still came back last night again. We can't even sleep on our bed. We have to hide in our house."
Monica Bodden
"So you are saying that they actually came back again into the yard?"
Voice of Aunt
"Yes, they were trying to jump the fence and we call the police and they came."
Around 10:00 on Friday night, just minutes after the shooting, GSU officers responded and secured a 2 block radius from where the incident happened. At the corner of Sanker and Gill Street - 2 blocks from where the shooting took place - they saw a man on bicycle racing from the area. He was stopped and searched - which led to the discovery of a sawed-off 16 gauge shotgun loaded with one cartridge, tucked inside his pants and an additional cartridge in his pocket.
He is 19 year old Rafael Usher who has been charged for Kept a prohibited firearm and Kept unlicensed ammunition. He is also currently being investigated for the actual shooting incident at the Matura's residence in which Mark Matura was shot and killed. Usher is reputed by police to have gang connections with Gill Street.
The Matura family is asking for the public's support in helping them with burial arrangements: You can contact the family at telephone number 624-8831.
Raymundo Chun who was killed in March was Mark Matura's brother.
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