Trenice Sam was a loving mother, grandmother, and daughter known for her good heart and giving nature. A 43-year-old Black woman, Trenice was a native of New Orleans who had relocated to Humble, Texas, after Hurricane Katrina. She was the mother of three children, Steven Jr., Treshunna, and Trenitra, and the proud grandmother of three, with another grandchild on the way. Her mother, Regina Sam, remembered her as a "good-hearted person" who was "very giving." Trenice worked as a cashier and was a beloved companion to Dwayne Horton. She had returned to her hometown from Texas specifically to be there for her daughter, who was about to give birth.
The day before she died, Trenice spoke with her father, Joseph Sam Jr. "I talked to my daughter yesterday around noon," he recalled. "I asked her if she was doing alright. She said, yeah dad, I'm alright." But just after midnight, in the early hours of Tuesday, March 10, 2015, that sense of security was shattered.
At approximately 12:49 a.m., Trenice was sitting in the driver's seat of a parked white Pontiac in the 5100 block of South Robertson Street in a quiet Uptown neighborhood. She was with another 43-year-old woman in the passenger seat and at least one man in the back. The group had reportedly made a phone call and driven to that location. A lone gunman approached the car from the front, opened fire, and fled on foot.
Neighbors were startled by the sound of what one described as six to eight gunshots fired in rapid succession, followed by screams. One man, who had just moved to New Orleans that day, came outside to a chaotic scene. He saw that the car's windshield was riddled with bullet holes, concentrated on the driver's side at eye level. "Whoever shot her wanted her dead," he observed. Trenice was struck by two bullets in the side of her torso. The other woman in the car was shot once in each thigh but was expected to survive. A man who had been in the back seat was heard pleading with Trenice to "stay with me," before crying out, "She's dead. She's dead." Two neighbors with medical training rushed to help, performing CPR on the sidewalk, but their efforts were in vain. Trenice Sam was pronounced dead at the scene.
The New Orleans Police Department Homicide Division launched an investigation into the city's 33rd homicide of the year. Investigators found shattered glass littering the street where the attack occurred. They learned that a man who had been in the car's back seat was unharmed, as was a fourth person who also escaped injury. Police believed the group was deliberately targeted, but a motive was not publicly disclosed, nor was the identity of the shooter.
For Trenice’s family, the murder was another devastating tragedy in a series of violent losses. In 2010, Trenice's nephew was shot and killed. Just three years before Trenice's death, in 2012, her sister, Tiesha Sam Stewart, was gunned down in an apartment complex parking lot in what was described as a domestic dispute. Her mother, Regina, expressed the immense pain of having no convictions in any of her family's murders. "The sucker that killed my grandson is still out there. It's been five years. I ain't got no justice," she said in 2015. "It's going on three years with my baby girl's murder and I haven't got no justice on that." Now facing the loss of another daughter, she lamented, "I'm just sick and tired of these demons out here doing what they want to do and getting away with it."
Funeral services for Trenice were held on Friday, March 20, 2015, in the Magnolia Chapel of Charbonnet-Labat Funeral Home, and she was laid to rest in the New Hope Baptist Church Cemetery. Her family expressed their gratitude to the neighbors who had tried to save her life.
As of the latest available reports, the murder of Trenice Sam remains unsolved. No arrests have been announced, and no suspects have been publicly identified. The case continues to be an open wound for a family that has endured an unimaginable amount of grief, still waiting for answers and justice. Authorities ask that anyone with information regarding the shooting contact the NOPD Homicide Division at 504-658-5300 or Crimestoppers at 504-822-1111.
