IN JAMAICA: MURDERED UTECH student, 22-year-old Shanique Walters had chilling encounter two weeks ago.... Second scare fatal

BY KIMMO MATTHEWS Observer staff reporter matthewsk@jamaicaobserver.com  Friday, November 06, 2015    

Shanique Walters

Two weeks before 22-year-old Shanique Walters was brutally shot dead by criminals, a man travelling in a motorcar had made an attempt to lure her into the vehicle while she was on her way home in Hope Pastures, St Andrew.

The slain student’s mother, Heather Walters, made the revelation yesterday, adding that when her daughter told her of the incident she felt a chill run down her spine.

“I was at home when she called me and told me about the incident. Instantly my heart skipped a beat,” the mother told the Jamaica Observer during an interview.

“Immediately I told her that she had to report the matter, but she told me it was just a one-off case,” said Walters.

The Old Harbour resident said that she decided to let the incident pass, but still could not rid herself of the feeling of unease.

A University of Technology, Jamaica student consoles
her colleague yesterday as they reflect on the killing of
Shanique Walters, who was held up and shot by robbers in
the Hope Pastures community Wednesday evening.
 (PHOTO: LIONEL ROOKWOOD)

On Wednesday, Walters’s apprehension turned into grief, as the daughter whom she regarded as the centre of her world was brutally slain on Hope Boulevard in St Andrew shortly before 7:00 pm.

The mother’s sense of foreboding apparently heightened just about the time that her daughter, a student at the University of Technology, Jamaica (UTech), was being mercilessly gunned down.

“I was at home when mi hear someone knock on mi door. When I opened it I saw one of my neighbours standing at the doorway and trembling,” Walters related.

But, before the neighbour got an opportunity to tell her that death had taken away her child, the mother said she slammed the door shut.

University of Technology, Jamaica students, dressed in
 black, discussing the brutal killing of their colleague, Shanique
 Walters, Wednesday evening by gunmen
. (PHOTO: LIONEL ROOKWOOD)

“Have mercy, mi can’t believe seh Shanique gone,” Walters lamented as she sat at a table in her yard.

A few neighbours and church friends came over to console her as she fought back the tears.

Police report that Shanique and another female student were walking on Hope Boulevard shortly before 7:00 pm when two men in a silver motorcar drove up and demanded that the women hand over their bags.

According to the police, the friend handed over her bag, but Walters refused and ran off. more