2 women fatally shot in Cheverly; suspect kills self

CHEVERLY, Md. - Prince George's County police say a suspect in the fatal shooting of a mother of three young children and her half-sister was found dead from an apparent self-inflicted gunshot wound in Hanover County, Virginia.

According to police, 26-year-old Tarekka Jones and 22-year-old Jalisa Walls-Harris were both killed in Jones' Cheverly apartment just after 10:30 p.m. Monday by a gunman who fled the scene.

According to neighbors who were home at the time, one of Jones' children, a 5-year-old girl, witnessed the murders and knew the gunman by name.

Police said detectives obtained an arrest warrant Tuesday morning for 30-year-old Kevin Tyrice Reynolds, of District Heights, Md., who was believed to be in a relationship with Jones. Reynolds was later found dead in Virginia at around 10 a.m. Tuesday.

According to police and prosecutors, Reynolds was arrested for assaulting Jones back in early February. He was in jail for several weeks until a bond hearing last week.

Jones went to his hearing, but did not want to cooperate in the charges against Reynolds. Jones posted bond for Reynolds after it was reduced by a judge.

William McNeely said he heard the gunshots in his Cheverly apartment complex Monday night.

"Bam, bam, bam, and I woke up and I said, 'Oh, somebody must be locked out because it sounded hard,'" he described. "By the time I got my pants on and my cigarettes, I got out to see what was going on and I heard it again -- 'Bam, bam, bam.'"

McNeely said one of the shots went through the floor and into the apartment below. Other neighbors told him they saw the gunman run down the stairs and out the front door.

"I don't know what was going through his head, but I feel sorry for the kids," McNeely said.

Gloria Chapman lives in the apartment complex and said her nephew would play with the three little girls.

"They are some loving kids," she said. "I'm so sorry that they had to see their mother go this way."

On Tuesday afternoon, Jones' mother came back to the apartment. She said her daughter was working as a dental assistant and was studying to be a dental hygienist.

Family members said Walls-Harris worked at Buffalo Wild Wings restaurant in Bowie was an aspiring R&B singer.