Mother tries to understand why daughter was stabbed to death in the City on Saturday

The grieving mother of 27-year-old Shanice Millar who died last weekend after being stabbed in Bridgetown is seeking answers about the circumstances surrounding her daughter’s death.

Ohara Millar is still in a state of shock after witnessing her daughter’s lifeless body on a hospital bed. She told Barbados TODAY that as much as she would love to see Shanice alive again, she is longing to find out why she was stabbed about the body.

“All I could tell you is that I hear that it is something that happened sometime last year. And just so I hear that ….got out a taxi and attack my daughter. The police ain’t talk to me yet. The police say they will come today and talk to me. I ain’t too sure what went out.

Around 8:30 a.m. on Saturday, police were called to Upper James Street near its junction with Synagogue Lane in Bridgetown following reports that two females were involved in an altercation.

Millar of Kensington New Road, St Michael, received multiple injuries to her body. The injured woman fled the scene on foot toward Central Police Station and collapsed at the main gate. An ambulance was summoned to the scene and transported her to the QEH for medical attention.

Medical personnel at the hospital said the woman underwent emergency surgery but subsequently passed away.

Millar said she was at home when she received a phone call from Shanice’s boyfriend informing her that she had just been stabbed in town. She said, a few minutes later, she got another call informing her that “Shanice dead”.

The mother said she immediately rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital (QEH), where she was informed that a medical team was attending to her daughter who had lost a significant amount of blood. Four hours later, Millar was asked to go and “say my last to her”.

“They were trying to give her blood and her body wasn’t responding. She ain’t had no blood. All the blood in her body was gone. I couldn’t look at her. I just went inside but I didn’t go too close to her to touch her. She gone and left her daughter. A six-year-old girl that loves her mummy. She believes in her child, you know. She believed in her child,” Millar said, adding that she does know how to begin delivering the news to her grandchild that her mother is gone.

Millar, who said that Shanice went to town to purchase hair, also said that just around 8:30 a.m while at work, her belly started to hurt as though she needed to go to the bathroom and she started to get hot flashes.

“You know they say that the mother does feel it? I felt it for truth. I want answers. I want to know why she killed my child. My child gone and left me. She ain’t had no issues with nobody that I know about,” Millar said.

“I can’t believe that Shanice gone. I calling she sister and telling her to tell she [Shanice] come home. I want my daughter. I telling myself she gone down the road and coming back. She gone to work and coming back,” she added.

Forty-seven-year-old Millar described the second of her three children as a nice, caring, loving person who looked out for the wellbeing of those she knew. She said the former student of St George Secondary worked at the Geriatric Hospital and had a strong appreciation for doing hair and makeup.

“My sweetheart, the joy of my life gone. If I tell her I want $50 she would run and give it to me.”

Also visibly shaken over her untimely death is Shanice’s grandmother Audrey Millar who said she raised the young woman from a baby. The matriarch said that while she adored all of her grands, she shared a special bond with Shanice who had a caring personality. Audrey said Shanice was known for sharing with the homeless in and around The City.

The 73-year-old said the last time she saw her grandchild was last Friday when she saw her in the City. Audrey said at that time, she asked Shanice to buy her a sweetened beverage, but the young woman rejected, bought her a bottled water instead, and ordered her to immediately go home as it is still “COVID time”.   

“Don’t care how good you is, you will find somebody saying some bad thing about you. I know she is not that kind of child. She didn’t deserve what she get. But God is love. She resting in peace, let she rest. I hope the court deal with she and deal with she good too. But I want Shanice back, that is what I want back. I ain’t bring she and that is all, she was mine,” Audrey said.
anestahenry@barbadostoday.bb