Mabel Martinez Puerto Rico Olympian mother killed by stray bullet while sewing at family Connecticut home over the weekend. No arrests made.
Here we go again… The mother of a Puerto Rican Olympian has died after she was struck by a stray bullet while sewing at her Connecticut home over the weekend according to reports.
Mabel Martinez, 56, was struck in the head by an unknown shooter who opened gunfire on a man walking outside of her house in Waterbury on Saturday afternoon. She died from her injuries the next day, police said.
Martinez was described as an innocent bystander with the intended target shot in the leg and surviving.
Waterbury Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo told AP that investigators believe the shooting was drug-related.
‘This was definitely a random, tragic act of violence,’ he told the AP.
‘Why you? why is it like that?’
Martinez was the mother of Yarimar Mercado Martinez, a rifle shooter on the Puerto Rican Olympic team who competed in the summer games last year in Tokyo. The 27-year-old also competed in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Spagnolo said relatives were extremely distraught, including Mabel Martinez’s husband, whom he described as inconsolable.
The daughter posted on social media expressing her grief over her mother’s shooting death.
‘Why you? why is it like that? If you were just sitting in your house sewing, as you used to do…’ she wrote on Facebook in Spanish.
‘Two days ago you called me with excitement, asking me to save the date and help you prepare to renew your wedding vows with daddy in Puerto Rico,’ she said Sunday.
‘There are so many things I still needed to learn from you … I was so far away without being able to do anything, I couldn’t even say goodbye to you,’ the daughter continued.
The Olympian flew from Brazil to Connecticut late Sunday, according to Gilberto Hernández, president of the Puerto Rico Shooting Association.
Mercado Martinez said that her mother’s remains were being transported to Puerto Rico.
She apologized to her country for not being able to compete as she deals with her loss.
Police haven’t identified a suspect with police yet to make any arrests come early Tuesday.
