Detroit mother of 7 dies after being caught in gunfire over basketball game argument
Francesca Marks, 30, was trying to shield her children as bullets flew from a nearby basketball court when she was killed. Another man was also wounded
A young mother lost her life while trying to protect her her family after gunfire erupted at a Detroit park for what police say was a superficial reason.
On Saturday Francesca Marks, 30, was at Rouge Park on the city’s West Side with other family members, including her children, at a family reunion when a fight broke out after a basketball game. According to local station WXYZ, Marks and her family were rushing to leave the park after they heard a woman yelling about someone having a gun.
“She was getting ready to leave because these guys had already had a fight,” Marks’ mother Sherri Scott said.
As Marks attempted to rush her children, nieces and nephews to safety, as multiple people were shooting when she suddenly hit the ground. Her 10-year-old daughter and twin sister witnessed her fall.
“She looked at her sister and said, ‘I think I’ve been shot,'” Scott said. “Over a basketball game. She had nothing to do with none of that.”
WXYZ reported that Marks’ husband was on his way back to the park when the shooting happened with no idea his wife was hit.
Marks was a mother of seven whose oldest child is 12 and her youngest only two months old. She worked as a housekeeper at Detroit’s St. John Hospital.
“It’s a park where people should be able to come and enjoy themselves with their families, not come and get killed,” Scott said. “My daughter is dead and she has seven kids and three of them not gonna remember their momma.”
An unidentified 29-year-old man was also shot, but was treated for non-fatal injuries. Detroit police are still investigating the incident with an arrest yet to be made in the case.
In the meantime, Marks’ family have set up a GoFundMe to help with her funeral expenses.
