The niece of one of the Memorial Drive shooting victims attended Tuesday’s Community Debrief on the incident at Cambridge Community Center recounted the harrowing moments when it appeared her uncle had been shot. She also said earlier in the day her uncle had undergone his fifth surgery since the shooting.
Maimouna (she declined to give her last name) told Cambridge Day she lives with her mother and uncle near the scene of last Monday’s shooting. She was at work at the Massachusetts General Hospital Ketamine Clinic when her mother called her to inform her of the shooting.
Her mother shared photos of what appeared to be her uncle’s car at the scene, but there was some confusion over whose car he had been driving that day. In the meantime, her mother’s repeated calls to his cell phone went unanswered.
“Then I got a picture of a person on the ground,” Maimouna said. “I knew it was him, because of his beard and the shirt that he was wearing.” She recognized it as the same shirt he had on that morning.
Maimouna rushed home to meet her mother, and then back to Mass General — this time, to the emergency room, where emergency responders brought her uncle, who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds.
After her uncle, who has been identified in media reports as Casimir or Casmir Bangoura, a DoorDash driver, was admitted to the hospital, he was interviewed by state police investigating the shooting. During the portion of the community meeting where community members had the opportunity to speak, she asked local leaders why officers had asked her uncle if he had any “gang affiliation or drug affiliation.”
Maimouna told Cambridge Day state police had questioned her and asked if her uncle had any “enemies.”
When asked how this line of questioning made her feel, Maimouna simply said: “It is what it is.”
She said Mayor Sumbul Siddiqui had been in touch with her family, but otherwise none of the other “higher ups” in the city or state had contacted them.
Maimouna gave an update on her uncle’s condition. “He’s as good as he can be. He can’t walk like he usually does,” she said. She said it was initially thought he had three gunshot wounds, but Maimouna said doctors are still finding more bullets.
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