Mentally ill woman shot dead in Waterford

WHEN WATERFORD residents saw Stephanie Hamilton wandering around the community naked on Sunday, nobody fathomed it was the last time the mentally ill woman would have been seen alive.

The shock was palpable when a resident asked aloud on Tuesday,“She dead fi true?”

The body of 26-year-old Hamilton was found on Colthirst Road, a short distance from where she lived, about 11 p.m. on Sunday.

Residents reported hearing loud explosions on Sunday, hours after the nightly islandwide curfew took effect at 8 p.m.

That was as far as most would speak openly on the matter, as the very few residents spotted moving about i n that section of the community were tight-lipped.

Hamilton may not have been the target of the attack, as she was known to be mentally ill, one resident theorised.

A Toyota Corolla motor car parked along Colthirst Road was one of several vehicles damaged by flying bullets.

When The Gleaner visited her home on Tuesday, nobody was at the location.

Hamilton did not deserve to die like that, a resident who requested anonymity said. He described her as a “very intelligent girl; she nuh trouble nobody”.

Another resident said that Hamilton was always seen “a walk up and down ina the community, more time naked, and do herself the most way”.

Residents told our news team that rival gangs in the community have been at odds for some time and suggested that Sunday’s shooting might have been linked to the feud.

The police information arm said that investigations by Greater Portmore detectives were ongoing.

Since the start of the year, 303 murders have been committed islandwide.

Up to March 16, the St Catherine South Police Division, where the affected community is located, had two fewer murders than for the corresponding period in 2020.

Twenty-eight people were killed in St Catherine South up to March 16 this year. It is unclear whether that toll includes a double murder on the Bois Content main road on the night of March 15.