GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.– Dozens of family and friends met in the parking lot of Rau’s Party Store Sunday night to hold a vigil for Carlos Roy-Papo Martinez.
Around 1:30 a.m. Sunday, two suspects approached Martinez, 18, and another person he was with, and asked about buying marijuana, police say..
Witnesses told police the victims told the suspects they didn’t have any and started to walk away, and that’s when the suspects began shooting.
Martinez died at the scene from multiple gun shot wounds, police say. The other victim, who was also shot, ran to a nearby house for help. He suffered non-life threatening injuries.
Martinez’s cousin, Safera Baker, said she just can’t believe this happened. “I’m going to miss him,” she said. “He was a good kid.” Martinez was planning to return to school to get his GED, Baker said.
Vinita Key, Martinez’s grandmother, says she just hopes justice will be served. “A wonderful kid, a wonderful,wonderful kid. And I hope and pray whoever did this, I hope they get him, and I know they will.”
A makeshift memorial now sits in the parking lot, filled with candles and pictures to remember Martinez. Roy James, the young man’s father, just hopes the violence will come to end. “I’m grieving, my family is grieving. I’m just tired of the senseless things that are going on in the city,”
Anyone with information is asked to call Grand Rapids Police or Silent Observer at 616-774-2345.
