A night of birthday celebration ended in tragedy for a Buffalo woman who was shot and killed on a Rochester porch after attending a concert with her daughter and her family is now demanding justice while mourning a woman they describe as the heart of everyone around her.
Shatina Jones, 46, was found shot on the porch of a home on Rialto Street on May 6 and was rushed to hospital, where she later died. Timothy Chealey, 43, was also killed in the shooting. No arrests have been made in connection with the double homicide.
Jones had travelled to Rochester to celebrate her daughter Shyasia’s 26th birthday at the Sexyy Red concert at the Blue Cross Arena. After the show, she stayed the night at the home of her best friend of over 30 years a woman whose family the Joneses had known for decades, a house where they had celebrated birthdays together many times before.
She stepped outside for a cigarette and never came back in. “She was at a friend’s house where she was supposed to have been safe, and someone came and took her life for nothing,” said her sister, Andrea Tripp, Local WHAM.
Those who knew Jones say her warmth was impossible to miss. “She was loving,” Tripp said. “Everybody she came in contact with loved her. She was just so fun. She was non-judgmental, caring. She would do anything for anybody. That woman was just so good to everyone, and it’s just so tragic she had to go like this. I never in a million years thought my sister would’ve lost her life to gun violence.”
Jones was a mother of four who, her family described, was endlessly hardworking and multi-talented. “My mother was an entrepreneur,” said her daughter, Shyasia Doucette. “She did a little of everything. She worked in a salon. She cooked. She did everything. She was at the same job for over 16 years, once she stopped doing hair.”
Doucette, who now shares her birthday with the anniversary of her mother’s death, is still trying to come to terms with the loss. “I understand we had a good time and she always celebrated every birthday,” she said. “Now, I’m trying to process celebrating her on the same day as me for the rest of my life.”
For Jones’s other daughter, Tyanna Bradley, each morning is a struggle. “Every day is a challenge, waking up, realizing that she’s not coming back. But getting justice will help,” she said.
The family hopes the killing sparks broader action on gun violence in Rochester. “This gun violence has to stop. It’s senseless and innocent people are dying for no reason at all. These killers need to get off the street,” Tripp said.
A memorial walk for Jones is planned in downtown Rochester in June. Anyone with information is asked to call 911 or Crime Stoppers at (585) 423-9300.
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