ST ANN, Jamaica – Lataya Grey, who watched her 19-year-old sister take her last breath yesterday, is still trying to understand why she died. The air escaped from Naveragh Grey's body as her elder sister turned her face up, a futile effort to save her after she was shot during a dispute about garbage strewn in a neighbour's yard. The incident took place at 11:15 in the morning.

This morning, Lataya spoke of her sister's dream of being a nurse, her easy-going nature, and ability to make those around her smile.

“She always make you laugh and most times you hear her voice before you see her. She will hit mi and run, or mi will do the same,” Lataya told OBSERVER ONLINE.

Her sister, she said, was working as a bartender but dreamed of becoming a nurse and so family members encouraged her to go back to school. She took their advice and enrolled in the Triple M Nursing Institute in St Ann's Bay where she took courses in practical nursing. In January she took a break to save enough to cover her tuition. Her plan was to resume her studies in September.
“Yesterday [during the argument] she came down and she said to me, 'you see how arguments come!' And mi say, 'Navi no pay them no mind'. And she said, 'alright sister me hear you'. Me go hot up my food and go on the road.”

The next time she saw her sister, she was face down in a garden, on the verge of death. According to the police, there was an argument between the teenager and a neighbour. It escalated and the man allegedly left and returned with a firearm. He allegedly fired several shots, hitting two other people. Grey was chased into the nearby garden, where she was shot three times and later died, her sister said. The injured people are now hospitalised in stable condition.

“Me never expect this from him as a neighbour who we know as a father; [someone] that we know from we born,” said Lataya.

According to commanding officer for the St Ann Police Division Superintendent Dwight Powell, the alleged shooter was taken into custody today.

Donicka Robinson