A 27-year-old Buena Vista Township woman has died days after she was shot alongside a 19-year-old man near a Saginaw intersection, becoming the city's third homicide victim this month. Nikeyttia L. Jones died Tuesday, Oct. 27, in an area hospital from gunshot wounds she suffered four days earlier, while the man who was with her, Eric Romero Jr., died the day of the shooting.
Jones and Romero were shot at about 9:15 p.m. on Friday, Oct. 23, near Cooper and Mershon streets, according to MLive. The outlet reports that unknown parties opened fire on the pair while they were in or near a vehicle, which then crashed into a utility pole on the intersection's southeast corner. Romero, 19, died of his injuries that same day, while Jones remained in critical condition until she died four days later.
No Arrests In Either Case
Police had made no arrests in the double shooting as of Wednesday afternoon, per the same account. Jones's death marked the city's third homicide this month, following the Oct. 9 killing of Juannazia C. “Nazia” Guerra, who was shot along with a 26-year-old man while the two sat inside a white Pontiac G6 at Bridgton Place Townhomes. The wounded man survived that shooting, but police have arrested no suspects in Guerra's homicide either, the report notes.
Guerra was free on bond at the time of her death. She had been arraigned Oct. 1 on one count of third-degree fleeing and eluding police, a charge tied to a daytime shooting on the 1400 block of Webster Street on Saginaw's east side. Investigators have identified or charged suspects in all nine homicide cases that preceded the deaths of Guerra, Romero and Jones, the report states — leaving these three killings as outliers in a year that had otherwise seen steady progress on closing cases.
A Grim Milestone For October
Jones is the second 27-year-old woman to die from gunfire this month in Saginaw, and her death marks the city's 12th homicide of the year. All but one of those 12 victims died from gunshot wounds, according to the same report. The city's 2026 homicide victims include three women and nine men, with an average age of 28.
The pace echoes last year's: Saginaw had recorded 12 homicides by this point in 2025 and ultimately tallied 15 for the full year, with nine of those cases resulting in identified or charged suspects, a 60% clearance rate, according to earlier MLive reporting. By mid-August of this year, the city's Major Case Unit had posted a perfect 100% clearance rate on the nine homicides recorded to that point, a figure that outpaced the most recent national average of 61.4% reported for 2024, the outlet noted. Those earlier 2026 victims ranged in age from 17 to 49 and included eight males and one female.
Whether this month's unsolved cases will eventually be closed remains to be seen, but for now, the deaths of Guerra, Romero and Jones stand apart from a year that had otherwise seen nearly every homicide in the city resolved with a named or charged suspect.
