Slain Prospect Heights woman leaves behind 2 children, grieving mom says

The mother of a woman fatally gunned down two blocks from Brooklyn’s Barclays Center Wednesday night said she’s frantically looking for answers from police about what happened.

Norma Campbell said she was already in bed when she got word that her daughter, 36-year-old Tamika Powell, had been murdered nearby. Campbell said she and and her family rushed to the scene, where they saw Powell lying at the intersection of Carlton Avenue and Pacific Street in Prospect Heights, covered in a white sheet.

“ Nobody was talking to me last night. They just kept saying ‘back up, this is a crime scene’ and nobody's giving me any information,” said Campbell through tears. “I’m sitting here this morning, not knowing what to do or where to go.”

Police said Powell was shot in the head around 10:30 p.m. and the suspect fled.

Campbell said she heard from a crowd at the scene that her daughter was at a barbecue outside a building on Atlantic Avenue and Carlton Avenue, and got into an argument with a man.

“ Shortly after the argument, she left and they said she went towards Pacific,” Campbell said. “The person she was arguing with put on a mask and left right behind her.”

Moments later, Campbell was told, one of the speakers at the barbecue fell down – leaving the party quiet for a minute. During that silence, they heard a single gunshot.

Campbell said she had a complicated relationship with her daughter over the years, but still loved her fiercely.

“ She was a challenge. She had a lot of personality,” Campbell said, explaining that her daughter was raised in the neighborhood but spent about five years living in Connecticut.

Campbell has been raising Powell’s two daughters, ages 12 and 13, for years since Powell was involved in a domestic incident with the girls’ father.

“When things were good, she'd come [for] Christmas, she'd come Thanksgiving, she would bring tons of gifts for the kids,” Campbell said. “We would have so much family time and so much fun.”

But things seemed to take a turn when Powell told her mother she’d been diagnosed with lupus. She stopped working, lost weight, and returned to New York – though Campbell said she didn’t know where her daughter was living or what she was doing.

They last saw each other three weeks ago. Now, Campbell said, she’s trying to help her granddaughters through the loss of their mom.

”It didn't have to come to this. She's gone. And whoever did this will be gone because they're going to jail for the rest of their lives,” she said. “Two families ruined, two lives ruined.”

Powell’s death follows the fatal shooting of another woman, 45-year-old Chaneil Ramsey, in St. Albans, Queens on Monday afternoon. Police said she was shot in the head on Merrick Boulevard near Baisley Boulevard, and they did not make any immediate arrests. Some reports indicated that she could have been a victim of domestic violence.

Shootings and murders are down marginally so far this year in the 78th Precinct, which includes Park Slope and Prospect Park – though both types of crime are rare in the area, according to NYPD data. Powell is the first person to be shot and killed in the precinct this year.