The mystery behind what led to the killing of a beloved mother and member of a New York City community who was stabbed to death in a massive brawl might be unraveled by a social media dispute that reportedly involved her daughter.
Jennira Roundtree was known to many of her neighbors in a city-run apartment complex on Staten Island. The 43-year-old security guard and mother of four often devoted her personal resources to hosting weekly summer barbecues that brought her community together.
“Always walking around with a smile, always thinking about, oh, how could we get some money together to barbecue for these kids so they’re not out in the streets for the summer, let’s hold a barbecue every weekend,” Roundtree’s friend told ABC7 anonymously.
That’s why her death was so shocking and devastating to the many people who knew her.
According to the New York Daily News, Roundtree was knifed twice in the chest and slashed in the stomach with an umbrella in the heat of a brawl involving 20 women on Jan. 7 at NYCHA’s West Brighton Houses — the same complex where she hosted neighborhood events.
She was rushed to a local hospital, where she died.
It’s unclear what started the fight, but another friend of Roundtree’s said the mother got involved after learning her daughter was part of the melee.
“An argument, I don’t know about what, but she was being a mom, a mama bear,” the friend said.
“She only wanted to protect her baby,” a relative told the Daily News. “She only went outside to get her child in the house, only to find her child with a pack of more than a dozen girls on her. She tried to pull her child away and they all jumped her.”
One of Roundtree’s relatives said the brawl might be connected to an online feud her daughter was part of.
“I think it may have started from her daughter’s page because this was a fight dealing with her daughter and one of her daughter’s friends,” the relative said.
In the days before her death, Roundtree also posted a string of posts about an unrelated dispute she was involved in.
“Just punched a MF with both hands at the same time I’m not playing this year,” she posted on Facebook on Jan. 3, New York Daily News reports.
Her final Facebook post on Jan. 4 read: “B—h I’m an officer now so no I’m not fighting I’m gonna let you swing n pop your a– then you gonna go to jail for a minimum of 7 years. F–k wit me if you want to.”
Friends and relatives remembered Roundtree as outgoing and kind.
“She loved her kids, loved them to death,” Roundtree’s aunt said.
“This neighborhood was important to her because she wanted different for all the kids coming up. And she was trying to make a difference, and she was,” a friend remarked.
Authorities found the knife that was used in the stabbing at the scene but have made no arrests so far.
