Olympian's mother killed by stray bullet while sewing in Connecticut home, police say.
The mother of a Puerto Rican Olympian was killed over the weekend after she was shot in the head while sewing in her Connecticut home, according to police and her daughter.
"Why you? Why this way? You were just sitting in your little house sewing, as you always did," she wrote in Spanish.Juan Luis Martínez Pérez / GDA via AP "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," Mercado Martinez wrote. She added that she would give anything to trade places with her mother.
The athlete flew out of Brazil late Sunday and has arrived in Connecticut, according to Gilberto Hernández, president of the Puerto Rico Shooting Association, the sport’s governing body in the U.S. territory.“We trust that she will overcome this,” he toldWaterbury police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said investigators believe the shooting was drug-related and had nothing to do with Mabel Martinez.