A relative of the Jamaican Urban Transit Company (JUTC) employee who was fatally shot on Monday outside her home on West Avenue in Central Village, St Catherine, said that she had been receiving death threats just days before her demise.

“I saw her Sunday evening about 4:30 pm, we were talking about the threats that she was getting, [allegedly from her workplace]. She said that co-workers called her an informer and that was why she got a promotion. The PNP (People’s National Party) people dem, she said, did a cuss seh she get promotion and she just started to work,” a cousin of the deceased told the Jamaica Observer.

According to the police, 36-year-old Nathalie Smith was on her way to work approximately 4:10 am when she was shot several times by unknown assailants.

The woman said that Smith was not scared as a result of the threats she had been receiving for almost a week and that she was looking forward to starting in her new position, which would have taken effect today.

“She never reported it [as] she never take it as nothing. She said from last Wednesday when her supervisor informed her of the promotion and a transfer to the Lyndhurst Road Depot in Kingston the people dem (co-workers) started to cuss,” the cousin said. “She said she just wanted the 14th (of September) to come when she would move and would not see them,” she added.

The cousin told the Observer that she was still trying to fathom why someone would want to kill the mother of three.

“She was a jovial person and she nuh give problem; nobody nah look fi this, nobody whatsoever; mi nah look fi this to happen to her. She was not the type of person that goes out often; she would cuss because cause she was ‘miserable’ but she would not keep malice.”

The woman said the death has badly affected some of Smith’s relatives.

She said two sisters who came from abroad for the funeral of another sister who died last month had to be taken to hospital for treatment when they heard of Smith’s death.

On Monday, the JUTC expressed deep regret and sadness at the fatal shooting of the 36-year-old employee.

“Ms Smith was only employed by the company in July of this year but her loss is no less tragic to the company,” the bus company said in a release.

She was employed as a casual worker and was a member of the team that puts out and takes up the cones that mark the JUTC bus lane on the Mandela Highway.

Smith is the second JUTC worker from the Spanish Town Depot killed in three months.