Mother of 6 murdered

Dana Augustus

A school warden was killed in the comfort of her own home on Friday night in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the Old Capital. It was just past midnight when forty-one year old Dana Augustus came in harm’s way. Augustus, who worked at the Ephesus Seventh Day Adventist Primary School, is the seventh female to be murdered since the start of the year. The mother of six was in her kitchen when shots were fired; she did not live to see the first day of the school year. It is believed that Augustus was not the intended target but that she is a victim to gang rivalry. Freelance Reporter Duane Moody reports.

Duane Moody, Reporting

Forty-one year old Dana Augustus, a mother of six children—four girls and two boys—was shot inside her home on Mayflower Street just after midnight on Friday. Augustus was in her kitchen when a barrage of bullets was unleashed in her direction; she was hit once. Police Press Officer, Inspector Fitzroy Yearwood, says that although Augustus wasn’t the intended target, she is a casualty of gang rivalry.

Fitzroy Yearwood

Insp. Fitzroy Yearwood, Police Press Officer

“Our investigations so far have led us to believe a shooting incident that took place earlier that same night may have been related hence causing Dana to lose her life. Nevertheless, when Miss Dana Augustus was transported to the K.H.M.H. she was seen suffering from a gunshot wound to the abdomen. She was undergoing treatment when she succumbed to her injury. The earlier shooting on Friday, the thirty-first of August, is where one Lucretia Myvette was seen suffering from a gunshot wound to the back.  We at the department believe it is directly related. We do not want to say that these females were in any gang, but because of your association; people that you associate with related to rivaling gangs in that same neighborhood.”

Voice of: Friend of Murder Victim

“Inside di house mi just bloody up, the ceiling mi got some couple gunshot hole.”

Dana’s friend, who lives in a house in the same yard and spoke to us off camera, says she heard several shots, but never thought her friend was the target.

Voice of: Friend of Murder Victim

“Bout twelve o’clock, I hear some shots ring out. I get up, I look through my window, but I noh see nobody. I gone back gone lay down. About a minute after, I hear wah bawling. I ask one of my daughter if she noh hear wah crying. She said yes that dah somebody dah front. So we get up, gone dah front and see all the police vehicle; gwen upstairs. I ask the police, I say I wah go upstairs deh. Police say, Miss you can’t go upstairs. I say why? Ih say because the lady upstairs get shot. I say dah my sister and that she could neva get shot—noh she. So after that, I see the police bring ahn down stairs, put ahn ina the back of the vehicle—the whole yellow blouse full up a lone blood. Dehn ker ahn dah hospital. When my daughter dehn gone and we reach deh, dehn say ih dead.”

The school warden of thirteen years at the Ephesus Seventh Day Adventist Primary School was about to go out just after midnight when she was shot. According to her friend, she does not know why anyone would want her dead.

Voice of: Friend of Murder Victim

“She mi done get up di change ih clothes because she mi gwen dah dance like how she usually does. Nobody holla fi she and she get up mi gwen dah the dance.”

Duane Moody

“So she was outside when it happened?”

Voice of: Friend of Murder Victim

“No, no, she was inside. So I feel like dehn mussi see wah shadow and dehn just start shoot up; but she mi deh inside ah ih house.”

Duane Moody

“Do you know why anyone would want to shoot at your sister or anybody that is in the house to try to get to them or anything like that?”

Voice of: Friend of Murder Victim

“No, I don’t know why, but dehn chance she outta her life because everybody know she. From home to carnival, carnival to home—she lived for that, the carnival. She excited. I always tell she dah director, producer, everything fi that carnival group because she into ih carnival. She said, sis I done get mi thing; I done get mi costume fix up.”

Augustus was a big hand in the Carnival Group, Mother Nature’s Creations.  On Friday, just seven hours before her life was taken, she was a part of the motorcade.

Leroy Green

Leroy Green, Friend of Murder Victim

“Dana was like a meteor. I remember the last thing I said to her on the motorcade on Friday was that Dana even when I come here in poor spirits, you always say something to make me laugh. She had a vivacious personality, always laughing, always giving jokes. And what I like about Dana, in her own way she was honest.”

Duane Moody for News Five.

The post-mortem is scheduled for Tuesday and she will be buried on Thursday.