Mother of four shot dead near Mattapan home
A mother of four - a sweetheart known around her Mattapan neighborhood as “Thunderbird” because “she moved so fast” - was gunned down early yesterday morning, hit by a bullet meant for a man beside her, police said.
“She was well-liked by everyone,” said James Jones, the father of slain mother Taniqua Jones, 24. “She was a good girl and a good mother. Everyone was cool with her.” It was James Jones who’d given his daughter her nickname.
Jones was killed a few blocks from her home, along a stretch of Harvard Street that has seen several shootings and murders in recent years. A police officer a street away heard the gunfire and spotted two men running from the scene, police said.
Both were arrested, and police said a gun was recovered.
“She was shot in the abdomen,” said a woman who lived in the Mattapan building where the bullets were fired. “She ran up the stairs and collapsed.”
A thick blood trail stretched in the hallway between 183 and 185 Harvard St. It spattered the walls and mingled with ripped police tape along the path the wounded Jones ran to escape her killer. The blood trailed heavily over tile floors and along a concrete courtyard; it halted abruptly on the stairs, three steps from the second-floor landing.
Police said Jones, whom they did not officially identify, was standing near an 18-year-old man identified as “K” by his friends when two men approached and opened fire, striking both of them. Friends said K was shot in the shoulder and survived his injuries.
Jones previously attended Dorchester High School and ran track, her father said. She had four children: a 1-year-old, 4-year-old twins and a 7-year-old girl. Jones’ aunt, Peggy Hentley, said there is no doubt that the bullets - some of which left holes in the front door of 183 Harvard St. - were not meant for her niece.
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Another aunt said Jones had spent her life in and around the Dorchester enclave where she lived and had many friends.
“She knew everybody down here. This is kind of shocking,” said the aunt, who asked that her name not be used. “It just doesn’t register.”
Police arrested Kadeem Foreman, 20, and Terrell Rainey, 20, of Dorchester. Both are charged with murder and are expected to be arraigned in Dorchester District Court, said Suffolk District Attorney Daniel Conley’s Office.
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He said the male victim is gang-affiliated. A police source said one of the reasons police were on scene so quickly is that a Boston Regional Intelligence Center detective was watching the area in response to an unrelated shooting.
“It’s one of our hot spots,” Davis said of the area along Harvard Street that, through the years, has seen several murders and shootings and frequent mayhem. “This was an area that was identified that needed specific police surveillance
Jones’ cousin, Jazzy Williamson, said she knew both suspects. She said they were from Dorchester, went to Charlestown High School, and they, in turn, knew who Jones was from being in the neighborhood.
“They knew who she was. They knew her face,” said Williamson, who yesterday struggled with guilt as she mourned her best friend. “She called me last night, but I was asleep. She wanted to go to this party. If I would have answered my phone and been with her, she wouldn’t have been shot.”
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