Olympian's mother killed by stray bullet while in her home, police say
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The mother of a Puerto Rican Olympian was killed when she was struck in the head by a stray bullet from a drug-related shootout taking place just outside her Connecticut home, police said.
At a news conference Tuesday in Waterbury, Conn., Police Chief Fernando Spagnolo said 22 shell casings were found at the scene, 15 from a 9mm gun and seven from a .45-caliber gun. The incident, which took place Saturday, involved men in two cars and one who was walking along the street near the home of 56-year-old Mabel Martinez, who died of her injuries Sunday.
Martinez was the mother of Yarimar Mercado Martinez, a 27-year-old rifle shooter who represented Puerto Rico at the 2016 and 2020 Olympics. Mercado Martinez was in Brazil for a competition and flew to Connecticut on Sunday.
"I was so far away without being able to do anything," Mercado Martinez wrote in Spanish in an Instagram post she shared Sunday, "I couldn't even say goodbye to you and I love you so much and you are such an important person in my life.
"Why you? Why this way? You were just sitting in your little house sewing, as you always did," Mercado Martinez wrote of her mother.
Spagnolo said Tuesday that his department is looking for a person of interest he identified as Levi Brock, a 34-year-old resident of nearby New Haven who the police chief said is the owner of a Honda involved in the incident. That vehicle waslocated and weapons found in it were tested by a forensics unit.
The owner of another vehicle involved in the shooting was located and interviewed by police, said Spagnolo, who added that both car owners are convicted felons known to authorities as being involved in the drug trade. The man injured while walking along the street told police that the shooting was drug-related after he was released from a hospital where he had been taken for a non-life-threatening wound in his hip.
Mabel Martinez's family told Connecticut station WFSB that she moved from Puerto Rico to Waterbury approximately two years ago. The family plans to bring her body back to Puerto Rico.
"This is so tragic," Spagnolo said at the news conference. "Words cannot describe or console you, we understand that, but we vow to you we are going to work very hard to make sure that we understand what happened here and bring the people to justice who are responsible for this."
Mercado Martinez, who competed in one rifle event in Tokyo and two in Rio de Janeiro, apologized in her post to Puerto Rico for having to withdraw from the recent event in Brazil.
"I really can't compete, my place is with my family and I can't wait to get there and be with them," she wrote in Spanish. "Rest in peace mom, you were the best grandmother for Jacob, the best mother and the best wife, we were blessed to have you. Thank you for everything you taught me. I love you with every bit of my being."
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