Sons want to start 'Tina's Helping Home' in honor of their mom who was killed in St. Paul

Mara H. Gottfried, Pioneer Press, St. Paul, Minn.
·3 min read

Jan. 28—Tina Marie Fells-McCombs had big dreams.

Her sons saw her overcome trauma and battles through her life, and she wanted to help other Black women so they wouldn't have to do it alone.

Since the 47-year-old was fatally stabbed Jan. 9 in St. Paul, the first homicide in the city this year, her sons are now taking on her cause.

They want to start Tina's Healing Home as a place to support women who "are fighting life's obstacles of being survivors of domestic abuse or experiencing mental health issues ... or substance abuse or stability for housing," Fells-McCombs' son, Lewis McCaleb, said Thursday.

We saw "our mother transform her trauma into triumph ... and we had these dreams, we wanted to accomplish this together," said McCaleb, who is also known as Lewiee Blaze. "... We're viewing this is as an opportunity to take our deep pain and turn it into power, and to immortalize her name and do something that is bigger than us."

A 38-year-old man is charged with kicking in an apartment door and stabbing Fells-McCombs on a Sunday afternoon in the North End. Her family is still searching for answers and "there is still no clear explanation to the cause of this tragedy," the family wrote on a fundraising page.

Police arrested Maurice Angelo McClinton Smith soon after. An investigator asked Smith why he was at the apartment at 180 W. Larpenteur Ave. and he said "to get some tea and crumpets," the criminal complaint said. "... When asked why he went to see (McCombs), Smith said, 'To kill her.' Smith said he was a simple prophet."

NEED FOR MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORTS

Toshira Garraway, who founded Families Supporting Families Against Police Violence and who supported McCaleb when he spoke publicly Thursday, said they're asking that Smith be held accountable.

They're also emphasizing "that prior to someone being murdered in our community, a Black woman being murdered in our community, that if someone is experiencing mental health symptoms and express those symptoms, that they're given the adequate help that they need, Garraway said.

A judge has ordered Smith undergo a mental health evaluation for competency to proceed with the case. Smith's attorney had no comment on Thursday.

Lack of true investments in communities needs to be fixed, said Rep. John Thompson, who represents St. Paul's East Side.

Those under-investments "ultimately created the monster who showed up to his mother's door and killed his mother," he said as he stood by McCaleb. He and two other men who spoke Thursday said they know McCaleb's pain because they still miss their mothers who've passed away.

MOTHER TO SONS AND THE COMMUNITY

Fells-McCombs was the mother of six sons, ages 3, 12, 17, 20, 24 and 28. McCaleb's father died 11 years ago.

"I've seen her have to navigate these systems and navigate this community and do the best that she could to provide for" her boys, McCaleb said. He remembered her as nurturing, selfless and fearless, "a mother of the community" who never turned someone down when they needed a place to stay.

Now, McCaleb said they are trying to provide financial stability for their family, including having all his brothers in one home together.

"It would also give us a chance to breathe and have the mental capacity to fulfill the vision of opening what we call the Tina's Healing Home," said McCaleb, 24, who is a St. Paul musical artist, entrepreneur and activist who works as a Ramsey County violence prevention coordinator.

People have been telling McCaleb it's OK to cry and he said he has been.

"I've been breaking down since I got that phone call," he said. "... Some days, I really wish I could just wake up and it was just a long ... nightmare."

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HOW TO HELP

Contributions to the Tina Fells-McCombs Memorial Fund can be made at gofund.me/67adb397 or North Star Bank, 1820 N. Lexington Ave., Roseville, MN 55113.