15-y-o girl dies; mother, cousin hospitalised after Trelawny assault

WESTERN BUREAU:

A MAN has been taken into custody, stemming from the attack and subsequent death of 15-year-old Jamila Cole of Cotton Tree, Albert Town, Trelawny.

Cole, her mother Shanice Anderson, and 17-year-old cousin, Kayla Dawson, were beaten with wooden objects by two masked men who accessed their home about 2 a.m. on Sunday, through a glass window.

The boyfriend of Anderson’s mother-in-law, who lives in the same yard with her family, was taken into custody pending investigations, the police have confirmed.

Cole’s father, Sherly Cole, said when he saw how his daughter was beaten and left to die in a gully, “I could not manage it.”

The elder Cole added, “Wickedest one a when mi look pon mi daughter. Mi can’t believe. All har colour change. She cyaah talk, nutten nah come out a har mouth. Mi seh Jah, Jah.”

He said for years he set the best example for the two girls.

“Mi bade them. Mi plait dem hair. Mi wash dem clothes. Mi carry dem guh school. Mi look after dem food,” he recalled while saying he was not convinced a stranger attacked Anderson and the girls.

Jamila, who was a student at Troy High School, was tied up and left to die in a yam field near her home. She was taken to the Spaldings Hospital in Manchester, and later transferred to Kingston where she died Monday morning after failing to regain consciousness.

All three victims received head injuries. Anderson and Dawson are still being treated in Spaldings.

Reports are that the two girls were sleeping on a bed in a back room, while Jamila’s mother was in the living area. It is believed the men attacked Anderson first, delivering blows to her head and causing her to lose consciousness before they turned on the girls, who fought for their lives.

Dawson escaped during the attack, but the men tied up the 15-year-old and are believed to have assaulted her further.

Anderson’s younger child, a nine-year-old, woke up, saw her mother in blood, and reportedly called her grandmother who lives next door. When she was unable to reach her grandmother, she called her father, who lives overseas. It was her father who alerted the rest of the family that something seemed awry.

According to the grandmother, Venis Anderson, once she heard there was blood in the house and the girls were missing, she made the decision to call the police.

“I called the police and now I am being accused of being involved in the attack. I am innocent. I know nothing about it. Mi and Shanice live like mother and daughter. But because my little granddaughter was not hit by the attackers, they say I was involved,” she told The Gleaner.

She also feels her boyfriend, who is in custody, was wrongly accused.

“He was in bed with me. He was who handed me the telephone when my son called, so how could he have been the attacker,” she questioned.

It was Venis Anderson who took her daughter-in-law to the hospital.