The mom of murdered teenager Isaiah Furbert described her endless battle with grief and despair yesterday after her only son died at her feet.

Arretta Furbert said she “lost faith in people” on the night a gunman opened fire on her 19-year-old in the family home in October last year.

But she vowed: “If I fall to pieces, then the people who did this win and I won’t let that happen.”

Ms Furbert was hit by a second tragedy just nine months after Isaiah’s murder when she witnessed the death of her son’s best friend, Jahcari Francis, in almost identical circumstances in her home.

She said: “To have two children die at your feet is the most awful experience you can imagine. Sometimes I see Isaiah lying there and I can hear Jahcari calling to me.

“I feel people have forgotten what happened. I wonder whether everything I did was for nothing.

“I worked so hard to raise this boy and to be a good mother, but it’s like I did it for nothing. I just miss him so much.”

Ms Furbert told The Royal Gazette that her son was a “momma’s boy” and a “good soul”, who did well at school and loved fishing with his father.

But she admitted his close family ties to the St Monica’s area had sparked animosity and friction among some people.

Ms Furbert said: “Isaiah was the kind of child that others gravitated towards. He was popular, kind and would give you the shirt off his back.

“He went to Elliot Primary, then Victor Scott, then Whitney Institute and finally he graduated from Berkeley.

“Isaiah may have been quick with his mouth, but all the schools he went to never had a problem with his behaviour. He was respectful and the teachers loved him.”

Ms Furbert was at home with her son on the evening of October 18 last year when she heard a “pop” sound.

She said: “A gunshot does not sound like it does on TV, it was like a bulb had been dropped.

“There were two boys and Isaiah in the bedroom, and I thought they had broken something.

“But when I saw the look on one of the boy’s faces, it was just sheer terror.

“By the time the third shot went off I realised what was happening. We all ran into the living room.

“I could see Isaiah’s bedroom. He was on the floor. He was lying face down. It looked like he was sleeping, but I saw the pool of blood around him just grow.

“The rest is a blur. I called 911 and screamed ‘They killed my son’.”

“My neighbour tried to resuscitate him and they never stopped working on him. In the hospital, I remember I prayed so hard, but I knew when I saw the doctor’s face that he was gone.”

Ms Furbert said she had struggled to come to terms with her loss in the wake of her son’s murder.

She arranged for Isaiah to be buried at sea, which was an experience she described as “beautiful”.

Over a year has passed since Isaiah’s death but nobody has been brought to justice.

Ms Furbert said: “I know that Isaiah would want me to get up and carry on, and that’s what gets me up in the morning.

“I have lost faith in people. I don’t trust anyone. It’s not because I am scared, but I have just lost faith in the human race.

“I feel angry and confused by the system. It seems Bermuda is so fickle. No one is up in arms about what is happening to our young men.

“We have seen all these marches about the airport and other things, but our children are dying in the street and no one is marching.

“It seems we really don’t care. The outrage is simply not there.”

She added: “I’m trying my best not to let it take control of me. I head towards the east every night and every night I look at the ocean and think of my son.

“I will never see him have children or know what he would have been like as a man.”

Ms Furbert moved back into the Upland Street home she had shared with Isaiah shortly after he was gunned down because she could not afford to move out.

When her son’s best friend Jahcari Francis was released from prison, she agreed to take him in.

She said: “Jahcari was devastated to miss Isaiah’s funeral. He had a bad bike crash and asked to move in with me. I didn’t think anything was going to happen, but I told him to stay low.”

Mr Francis, 20, was shot dead on July 19 in a killing that detectives said had all the hallmarks of a “gang murder”.

Ms Furbert said: “We were sat around the dining table when they walked up to the French door and hit him in the side.

“I heard two shots. The glass shattered on us and we ran.

“Jahcari went down and was shouting at me to call 911. I scrambled back into the living room, got my phone and found myself making the same phone call again.

“It was even the same operator. She recognised my voice as I screamed ‘They’ve killed him’. He died right there on my floor.”

Anyone with information about either murder should call 247-1218 or 717-0864, or the anonymous Crime Stoppers hotline on 800-8477.