Losing Pedro: Murder and heartbreak in the words of a teenage victim’s mother
Perched in a doorless closet off the living room in Brenda Cardenas’ house are photographs of her murdered son.
On the floor below, tennis shoes that belonged him sit neatly in a row.
To feel close to him, sometimes the 38-year-old woman lights candles and meditates inside the closet.
The space has become a shrine to Pedro Garcia Jr., who at age 17 was shot and killed in Macon by another 17-year-old named Tajah Coleman on Villa Crest Avenue in September 2018.
He played youth basketball and help with his stepfather’s construction business. He had gotten in trouble in school at times and had on occasion had run-ins with the law, his mother said, but never for violence.
On the night he was killed, Pedro had finished his shift at Wendy’s and had encountered Coleman a troublemaker trying to steal a child’s bicycle, prosecutors have said. It is believed that Pedro died over a gold necklace he was wearing.
Pedro’s street corner death was one of 42 homicides in September 2018, a near-record year for bloodshed in Bibb County. His family lost him just before they were set to move from their crime-torn neighborhood off Houston Avenue to a subdivision across town.
Garcia was killed on Villa Crest Avenue in southeast Macon.
Her son, Cardenas says, had just gotten off work at Wendy’s, where he was a cook, the night he died.
Cardenas and her family had lived in Warner Robins when Garcia was younger. They moved to Macon when he was in high school and were about to move from their crime-torn neighborhood off Houston Avenue to a subdivision across town.
Then a street-corner argument the night of Sept. 17, 2018, led to Garcia’s death. Prosecutors have said that he had stood up to a troublemaker, Coleman, who was angling to steal a kid’s bicycle and who took umbrage, later shooting Garcia to steal a gold necklace.
Telegraph reporter Joe Kovac Jr. recently spoke to Garcia’s mother. Quotes from their conversations, lightly edited for clarity, lend perspective to her struggle. Cardenas’ words appear below:
When there was a knock at my door to tell me about the shooting, I thought I was dreaming because it reminded me of when somebody came to get me for my brother who was murdered in Warner Robins in 2016.
They said Pedro was up there curled up dead. I said, “That can’t be true.”
I was upset when I first got to the scene of the shooting because they wouldn’t allow me to see for myself, to know if that was my Pedro.
I drove to the hospital to see if maybe he was there. They said he wasn’t. Then I went back to the street and heard a cop mention Pedro’s father, asking, “Is that Pedro Sr.’s son?”
Even talking about it is kind of hard.
I can’t speak for other parents that have lost their kids, but you never get over it. There’s always gonna be that little thing, that little something, someone that reminds you. Like my grandbaby, she reminds me of Pedro a lot when I look at her. It makes me feel good.
Growing up he always liked the video games, trading his shoes. His dad would always buy him these expensive shoes and he would want to trade them.
Pedro always liked sports. Everybody knew Pedro. He was a people person. All the older adults, they loved him.
I miss him. Knowing I can’t call him to come help me when I need him, and to help him, too. Because he would call me sometimes and say, “Hey, mom, can you give me $20? Can you take me to this place?” That hurts to know that I’m not gonna get that anymore. Sometimes I want to call and be like, “Hey, where you at?”
I don’t think I’ll ever move forward from it. I’m always gonna think about Pedro all the time.
I’ll be wearing his clothes sometimes. Even his socks.
When I’d see him down near Pendleton Homes, I was like, “Oh my God, what is he doing down here?” I was saying to myself, “Pedro, why are you here? Why are you down in this area? This is like the baddest area.”
After his death, I actually wanted to leave Macon. They keep saying they’re trying to stop what’s going on — carrying the guns, selling drugs or hanging out on that corner. And it’s like a few days after Pedro passed away, the people hanging out were still there, still doing the same things. It’s like the police are not doing anything.
Life is too short to waste it on the streets. Why not get a job?
Those mothers that see their kids going down the wrong path — knowing that they have guns and are staying out out late — I just pray that they push them to do better. You can’t just talk. You have to have action behind what you say.
The kids doing all these killings in these gangs, they don’t have anyone to support them. They don’t have anybody. Like Pedro, he had a whole family that cared for him.
I think my problem was, I should have been more — I felt like I was too hard on him. I should have been even harder. I still blame myself because I had a plan for him.
As far as my family goes, they were there for me every day. For months, they’d come over to my house to support me. It’s still unbelievable. I don’t mind talking about Pedro. That’s kind of what gets me through.
I do go see my counselor every once in while. In the month of his birthday and in the month that he passed it’s really hard. I take two medications — one to help me sleep and then one for depression.
If it wasn’t for my other kids, my young daughter, my grandbaby, who knows? They’re the ones that motivate me to keep going.
I know as a mother I shouldn’t say things like this, but in my mind I’m wishing those boys who killed him would, you know, be the same way Pedro is. They took a life, I wish their life was taken too. But then I have to think, things happen for a reason.
I was at the convenience store where I worked and I had never met the mother of the boy who shot Pedro. But she came into the store and I had rung her up and she was like, “I know you from somewhere.” And then she was like, “Can I give you a hug?” And I was like, hmmm. I came around the counter and I went over and she was like, “You may not know who I am, but I’m Tajah’s mom.” ... I didn’t give her a hug. ... I said, “Pedro was a good kid. I don’t understand why this happened.” She was like, “Yeah, I don’t know why he did what he did.” Then I had a customer so I told her to hold on a minute. So I went and took care of the customer and by the time I got back she had already left.
I don’t fault her for what he did. Everybody makes their own choices. What he did was the wrong choice. So I wanted to tell her that but she had already grabbed her stuff and left.
This story was originally published April 30, 2020 at 2:18 PM.