The Tribune

By SANCHESKA BROWN

Tribune Staff Reporter

sbrown@tribunemedia.net

POLICE are investigating the suicide of a 35-year-old Fox Hill woman hours after a 31-year-old man allegedly shot himself in the head on Friday.

According to reports the woman was discovered hanging from the door of her bedroom, around 11pm Friday, with a white rope tied around her neck.

EMS personnel were called to the scene, but pronounced the woman dead on arrival. Police have not officially identified the woman but sources say she is Shante Gibson, who lived with her father, Anthony Gibson, and stepmother, Debbie Gibson, on Reeves Street. They operated a small convenience store, Nish Mart on the same property.

According to sources, there was a strange odour in the residence that alerted family members to the body, which suggested to police that she might have been dead for some time before she was discovered. The body was also apparently “bloated”.

Police are also continuing their investigations into the reported suicide of 31-year-old Jamal Kemp, several hours earlier.

The shooting took place around 9am on Friday inside the victim’s Perpall Track home off Ferguson Road.

Mr Kemp was the father of two young children – a four-year-old girl and a three-year-old boy. His wife, who did not want to be identified said he was under a lot of stress and worked two jobs, one at Compass Point Resort, and the other at Albany’s Footprints restaurant.

He was described by friends and family as a “quiet man who loved his family.”

Police Inspector Chrislyn Skippings is appealing to anyone who might be going through a stressful time to “get some help.”

“I would encourage you to use the agencies we have available here,” she said.

“We have the community counselling assessment centre, we have the crisis centre, we have pastors, we have guidance counsellors, you have family members, and there may be other persons in society who you look up to, who can provide you with all the advice you need to get through tough times. Situations and trials come to make you stronger and so I just want to encourage persons to reach out to the relevant agencies, find someone you can talk to. You need to vent, you need to let it out. Problems have always been here and they will continue to be here. The thing is, you need to know how to manage them.”