PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WPRI) — Nora Bailey remembers the last time she saw her son like it was yesterday.
It was July 2002, and he was playing chess.
“I went and checked on him and he was like, ‘I love you ma!’ but something about the ‘I love you ma!’ that day was kind of weird,” Bailey recalled. “I shook it off.”
Hours later, 24-year-old Jamal Bailey was shot and killed while driving in Providence.
Nora recalls her family waking her up and telling her the horrible news.
“My world just tipped upside down,” she said. “Jamal was my heart and soul. He was a momma’s boy and we were close.”
Sixteen years went by before the unthinkable happened again.
Jamal’s son, 22-year-old Jamal Contreras, was shot and killed while driving near Columbia Park.
Investigators believe both men were targeted, but there’s no indication that the shootings were connected in any way.
Jamal Bailey’s daughter Nazjae Greene told 12 News she was only a little girl when her father was killed.
“You always cherish the memories,” Greene said. “I have pictures all over my wall.”
While it hurt to lose her father at such a young age, Greene said her world was completely shattered when she lost her brother in 2018.
“When I found out, it was like a whole chunk of piece of heart came out of me,” she recalled. “When I went to the hospital and I saw him laying there, I just felt so helpless.”
For Nora, it felt as though history was repeating itself.
“I was called to come to the hospital, all I saw was my son,” she said.
Both women are hopeful that whoever’s responsible for the murders that rocked their family will pay for their crimes.
“If we can’t get justice for my father … I would definitely love to get justice for my brother,” Greene said.
Police are hoping that one day, new leads will help them crack both cases.
Anyone who has any information regarding the murders of Jamal Bailey or Jamal Contreras is urged to contact the Providence Police Department at (401) 435-7600.
