A 58-year-old Jamaican man has been charged with murder after his niece was gunned down while sitting in her SUV in the Bronx, New York, on Monday night.

Michael Foster was on Wednesday charged with murder, manslaughter and criminal possession of a weapon in connection with the fatal shooting of 39-year-old Julia Anderson, whose parents are Jamaican.

According to police and US media reports, Anderson was inside her Jeep Grand Cherokee in the Wakefield section of the Bronx shortly before midnight when she was shot twice in the chest.