A mother is speaking out after her daughter and her three grandchildren were killed in a shooting in Pembroke Park.
A mother is speaking out after her daughter and her three grandchildren were killed in a shooting in Pembroke Park.
Irma Denisse told NBC6's sister station that she's holding on to faith and that her grandchild, 8-year-old Phiinyx, will recover from her physical and mental trauma.
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WATCH HEREAccording to police, Julie Cruz and her three children were murdered by her ex-boyfriend and father of two of her kids, 34-year-old Stephen McKenzie, who tried to take his own life.
The slain children were Cruz's sons, 11-year-old Xion Solomon, 2-year-old Nova McKenzie and 2-year-old Emery McKenzie..
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Stephen McKenzie is in the hospital while charges are pending.
Denisse said her daughter had plans to move with her children this weekend.
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"I don't know if she told him she was leaving, I don't know if she was packing up, I don't know those details," Denisse said in Spanish. "I asked her many times to leave him and come home, but she said the children wanted him."
The grandmother now remains at the hospital to help take care of her only surviving grandchild.
"She was asking for her mom, saying, 'Mama, Mama', I told her that she's going to see her mom and that mom is fine but she shook her head no saying, 'No, mom is not fine,'" she said in Spanish. "So I went to the doctors and nurses so they could sedate her because she remembers."
The shooting has shaken the community of Pembroke Park.
The town will offer grief counseling to those who were affected by the tragedy. It will be held Monday at Pembroke Park Town Hall starting at 5:30 p.m.
