Young mother killed at her gate

For most of Sunday, Orneilia ‘Nana’ Walker stayed inside her house on Hibiscus Avenue in Tower Hill, St Andrew.

A portion of her day was spent tutoring her four-and five-year-old children while her one-and three-year-old remained close by her side. Later that day, she ventured outdoors and sat by her gate. But, just minutes later, the unimaginable occurred. The 25-year-old was sprayed with bullets by a lone gunman who fled the scene in a waiting motor car.

According to a report from the St Andrew South Police, minutes after 7 p.m,, residents heard explosions and alerted them. Upon the lawmen’s arrival, Walker was found suffering from what appeared to be multiple gunshot wounds all over her body. She was taken to the Kingston Public Hospital (KPH) where she was pronounced dead.

Her eyes filled with tears, Walker’s mother Shonie Goodison stood with a group of women just footsteps from where her daughter was found. As she watched detectives comb the area for clues, she recalled the young mother’s final hours.

“Mi daughter deh home and she write up some cartridge paper with some three-letter words and she a teach dem. It was just she and her youth dem and we were here to help her with dem. Mi and her was outside the gate and another lady. Mi leave her go in go finish clean and mi never realise say is she alone leave out there,” she said.

Goodison said, just minutes after she went inside, she heard a single explosion and heard when her daughter cried out. But it never crossed her mind that the sound was a bullet piercing her skin.

“Mi hear like she say ‘Woiie’ but mi still nah pree nothing. After a few seconds, mi hear some more shots and mi run go bend down. Mi know a the gate the shot dem fire because of how close it sound, but mi nah think say a she a get shot. Afterwards, mi grandson run come in and say ‘A Nana’ and mi say ‘A lie’. When mi run go there, mi see her lay down cross the gate in a pool of blood,” she said.

She described Walker as a jovial individual who warmed the hearts of almost everyone she met.

“She was always wearing a smile and she love run her little joke. She was loved by everybody and she was that type of person. All mi keep on a wonder is what and who do this. If she did fight and get stab, then it would be understandable. But fi know say someone come directly for her, mi just can’t understand why,” Goodison said.

Residents in Tower Hill also described Walker as a free-spirited person and remained puzzled about why she would be targeted.

“Nana nah trouble a soul and that is what a bother we because we never hear like she and anyone in any problem. She was my little grandniece and she nuh pass mi anywhere. When mi hear say she dead, mi couldn’t even come up and come look on her body. She was a nice, nice girl. She was a girl who was friendly with everybody,” said one man.

Residents said that the area has not been experiencing violence.

“Shot nuh fire here suh in over a long time. When people tell yuh say dem fraid to come a Tower Hill, it would be over some tings weh happen long before mi born. Nobody nah expect this at all,” a woman said.