RUMOURS have been swirling that a court case may have led to the death of 46-year-old Nadine Brown, who was executed at her home in Retreat District, St Thomas, yesterday morning.

However, the police are neither confirming nor denying these allegations.

The vicious murder was committed about 5:50 am as Brown was attempting to leave home to take her 10-year-old daughter to school in Kingston. The child was not harmed.

Commanding officer for the St Thomas Division of the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) Superintendent Marlene Wilson Christie, while declining to comment on the specifics of the court case, said the police could not confirm nor deny that Brown’s death was as a result of the matter that is before the court.

“I won’t comment on it. I am allowing the police to continue their investigation,” Wilson Christie told the Jamaica Observer yesterday.

The superintendent of police said Brown, a sales representative, was about to leave her home on Edwards Road yesterday when a gunman opened gunfire at her, hitting her several times. She was taken to hospital where she was pronounced dead.

Sergeant Donovan Gordon, who had worked closely with Brown on a number of neighbourhood watches and other community projects, said Brown was a “community-oriented person and a stalwart neighbourhood leader”.

“She was the president of the St Thomas Neighbourhood Watch Council, she led the Yallahs Housing Scheme Phase Three Neighbourhood Watch. I met her through those initiatives,” Gordon told the Observer.

Gordon, who is also the sub-officer in charge of the Port Morant Police Station, said when he heard the news of her death a “darkness came over me”.

“I was shocked. I had to visit the home. She is not the type of person that has shadows over her life for me to say she was into something. She was well-bred,” he said yesterday.

The policeman said their last interaction was two weeks ago.

“She called me recently, stating that she was doing network marketing and she wanted to sell me a product. Knowing her and the type of person she is, whether I need the product or not, I had to support her, because she is the type of person, once she makes a commitment to assist with any task or to give you something, she would honour her commitment,” he reasoned.

Brown is the second parent to be killed within a week.

On Monday, 47-year-old businessman Ainsley Foulkes was shot dead two minutes after he escorted his son into Lannaman’s Preparatory School in St Andrew, hugged him, then walked back out to his motor vehicle.

He was taken to Kingston Public Hospital where he was pronounced dead.