As her 3-year-old adjusts to wheelchair, an East St. Louis mother wants end to violence
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Background articles on East St. Louis mass shooting
Here’s past coverage of the Sept. 9, 2021 shooting of seven people, including 3-year-old boy
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Three-year-old Mason Mitchell doesn’t understand why he can’t get on the floor and play like he used to before a stray bullet fractured his spine.
He’s had multiple surgeries to repair the damage inflicted by the reckless gunfire of three men on the parking lot of an East St. Louis store, where his mother stopped on Sept. 9 to pick up a hot meal for her family. Bullets hit Mason’s right arm, passed through his back and into his stomach.
He is paralyzed from the waist down and likely won’t walk again. Nurses at Ranken Jordan Pediatric Bridge Hospital feed him through a tube because he won’t eat.
The limitations imposed by his wheelchair frustrate Mason and he cries a lot. He wants to go home.
“Mason can’t walk, bend, stoop, be free to do all of the things he was doing. He won’t be able to have the normal life he had,” said Marquisha Collins, Mason’s mother. “When he is old enough, he won’t be able to have children. He is limited in all of the things he would have been able to do freely like play basketball, baseball, football, run track, skate, do skateboarding, walk a trail, or anything.”
Hospital bills and the ongoing needs of her son present added financial challenges for Collins. Now she’s lost her job and fears she won’t be able to keep up the twice-monthly payments on her car.
She said she also has to find a new home that will be wheelchair accessible.
“I think I am in depression mode,” Collins said. “This stuff is not easy. I am about to lose my car. I lost my job. Now, I need to find a wheelchair accessible apartment. I need a vehicle to accommodate his wheelchair. I have to be able to lift him in and out of the chair.
“This is a whole new way of life for all of us. Adjusting is not easy.”
An account has been established at Regions Bank in the name of Marquisha Collins and Mason Mitchell. Those who would like to donate may do so at any Regions Bank location.
The shooting occurred at around 4 p.m. near Martin Luther King Drive and Sixth Street in East St. Louis. Seven people, including Mason, were hit by the gunfire.
Three metro-east men were arrested the day after the shooting. They include Lorenzo W. Bruce Jr., 32, of Madison; Cartez R. Beard, 30, of Cahokia Heights; and Deangelo M. Higgs, 35, of East St. Louis. The St. Clair County State’s Attorney’s office charged each with multiple counts of aggravated battery/discharge of a firearm, attempted first degree murder, and felon in possession of a weapon.
Bond for the three men was set at $950,000 each. East St. Louis Police Chief Kendall Perry said the shootings appeared to be targeted.
Collins said she doesn’t know any of the three suspects who were captured while hiding in the basement of an abandoned structure at in East St. Louis. She’s glad charges have been filed, and says she wants those responsible to spend a lifetime trapped in a jail cell the way Mason is limited by his injuries.
But, she says, the larger problem of street violence needs to be addressed as well.
“There is no excuse for the craziness that is going on with people shooting guns,” she said. “Innocent people are getting hurt and killed. Another 3-year-old girl was shot before my son. She was at her grandmother’s house in her bed. She died. I feel so sorry for her family everyday. I can’t imagine what they must be going through.
“We need some help. We have to get these people off our streets. We need to find out how all of these guns are getting” in their hands.”
The 3-year-old Collins referred to is Calyia Stringer, who was hit in the head by a stray bullet while she laid in her bed at her grandmother’s East St. Louis apartment in the Roosevelt Homes on Sept. 5.
Police have not made an arrest in that shooting.
“There is no sense that can be made of their actions. My son is damaged for life. He has had to go through several surgeries, all of them had risks,” Collins said. “I have to be strong for my 8-year-old, who is traumatized. I have to be there for him. It’s a lot.
“People just don’t know what I am dealing with.”
Collins says her “nerves are worn thin.”
“I don’t know how to start my days anymore,” Collins said.
Jackie McDougle, Collins’ mother, described her grandson as outgoing and happy before the shooting. He had a fascination with trucks and liked to be with other children and playing games on a cell phone.
Mason also has a natural curiosity and was determined to do things on his own, she said.
“Looking at him now and knowing he is not the kid he was. is “heartbreaking,” McDougle said
“A lot goes through my mind. I picture him walking again and I just smile. Then, I turn around and picture him in a wheelchair and I get sad,” she said. “We have to get used to him with all of these disabilities. That’s going to be hard. He doesn’t even understand what’s going on, but he has lots of family.”
Besides video chats, McDougal hasn’t been able to see her grandson since the shooting. She’s not sure how she’ll hold up emotionally for their reunion.
In the meantime, like Collins, she wants justice for Mason.
“We are speaking up for Mason and for other children who were killed or are suffering a life sentence like Mason through no fault of their own. Grown ups are suppose to protect children, not hurt them,” she said.
“These men are too old to act like they did. Mason has been robbed of his normal childhood and our family is going through a tremendous amount of suffering. ... I don’t want them to have a chance to do the same thing to another family.”
This story was originally published October 26, 2021 at 7:00 AM.
