Mother of man shot dead in 'mistaken identity' case says open dialogue needed to tackle young people using weapons on UK streets
Monique Bate accepts she may never get answers for what happened to her son, Lamar Griffiths, but she wants his legacy to be improving the lives of young people who may be on the wrong path and need some guidance.
Monday 31 October 2022 19:08, UK
Lamar Griffiths was on his way to visit his nan on 29 March in Sheffield.
While he sitting in a car wash chatting to a friend, he was shot and killed.
Barely half an hour before the attack, he'd been on the phone to his mother Monique Bate, chatting about the weather and his plans for the day.
They spoke three to four times a day but this was to be the last.
Speaking to Sky News, Ms Bate recalls the moment she heard the news.
"That day feels like only 59 seconds ago," she said. "My world stood still in that moment and I had to really pull on old strength to grasp the new reality that I was now being faced with. It was soul-shifting."
Ms Bate says her son was killed in a case of mistaken identity.
He was, many say, in the wrong place at the wrong time.
South Yorkshire Police are continuing to investigate Lamar's death. But, extraordinarily for a mother who lost her son barely eight months ago, Ms Bate is channelling her grief into thinking instead about the young people using weapons on Britain's streets.
Explaining to Sky News why she is helping them, she said: "I have to move forward in a positive way and I think being stagnant in that thinking of, you know, 'who did it?' and 'I'm not going to get justice', it's a negative way of thinking and I need to move forward.
"I would be doing him an injustice if I was to be bitter and angry.
"We are living in a time where gun and knife crime are used as a form of intimidation and making profit.
"It's unfortunate that in this country, because of the deprivation that these communities are in, these young males are drawn towards negative social behaviours and criminal activity. This country has left them with no choice."
Gang violence, she acknowledges, continues to pose a threat on Britain's streets.
She wants to help - these predominantly young men - and questions why so many young people in the UK are falling through the cracks.
"They are doing anything by whatever means to provide for their families. And this is spilling out where innocent lives are being taken.
"It is getting more and more normal for these things to be in the news. And we need a more open and honest dialogue about the fact we do have a problem in this country.
"Those uncomfortable conversations need to be had about why these things are happening and why these crimes are taking place on younger, innocent children."
Monique has started an initiative in honour of her late son.
She sees the lack of support for young men as a profound problem that needs to be addressed:
"We need workshops and role models that motivate and instil self-discipline into these young males and give them hope.
"These kids are so lost and they're slipping under the net.
"I want Lamar's legacy to be a driving force in the UK that elevates young males and raises them up to give them a purpose. I want to be that person that bridges that gap between the streets, education and self-worth."
Monique has accepted she may never get answers for what happened to Lamar. But she wants his legacy to be improving the lives of young people who may be on the wrong path and need some guidance.
Lamar, she says, "empowered people" and she wants that to continue in his memory.