Women flee Waterhouse community after mother killed, daughter shot

Women fearing for their lives have begun vacating a Waterhouse, St Andrew community following the murder of 43-year-old Tameka ‘Aneeka’ Samuels and the wounding of her daughter on Balmagie Avenue in the community Tuesday night.

Samuels, who resided on nearby Penwood Road, was at an in-law’s gate when a gunman approached and opened fire around 8 p.m.

One of Samuels’ daughters was shot in the leg as she tried to run from the gunmen.

Reports from the Hunts Bay Police are that Samuels and her daughter were sitting at the gate when the lone gunman attacked.

The mother was hit by several bullets to her upper body while her daughter was shot in the leg.

According to the police, the assailant escaped in the area and lawmen were alerted to the scene.

Both women were assisted to the hospital, where Samuels succumbed and her daughter was treated and released.

When The Gleaner visited the area Wednesday morning, residents were not in the mood to speak with media and were unwilling to even point out where the shooting took place.

“Sir, me nuh know. Somewhere over there so. Me just can’t bother with the killing and everybody too emotional,” one resident said before ushering her children into a vehicle and leaving.

Police service vehicles were spotted patrolling the streets as other residents watched from afar.

Did not deserve fate

Soon after, a woman who lives in the area and appeared upset by the murder and the effect it would have on the community, told The Gleaner that Samuels did not deserve her fate.

“About 10 shots were fired. Me think a drive-by, only fi hear say the person come up through the yard back because some fence blow down from the hurricane,” the resident said. “Them directly turn the gun on she and her daughter run off and dem shoot her in her foot. Then them go back through the fence.

“She was a jovial person, everybody love her. Who nuh like her is who she would tell the truth, because a so she stay, she talk the truth and she nuh business.”

The Gleaner understands that Samuels was a vendor at Coronation Market in downtown Kingston.

Concerned residents said the community was “on a peaceful path” before the murder.

Samuels, a mother of four, was described by others as a nice woman.

“Everybody gone. A just me alone leave here so …,” said another woman with whom The Gleaner spoke, as she contemplated her next move.

The residents, in anger, burned the chair that Samuels had been seated in, saying it was too much of a painful reminder of what had occurred.

“It was stained with blood and every time we look at it we a go remember,” a resident said.

Up to August 3, the St Andrew South police division had recorded a 21 per cent reduction in murders, in comparison to the similar period last year.

Up to that date in 2023, there had been 73 persons killed in the division, in comparison to 58 killed this year.

The national murder toll has passed 700 homicides for 2024.

The police said their probe into Tuesday night’s deadly shooting was ongoing.

andre.williams@gleanerjm.com