Teen charged with murder in shooting of transgender woman, SC cops say
A teenager was arrested on multiple charges following the death of a South Carolina transgender woman, the Greenville County Sheriff’s Office said Tuesday.
Dacorey Dashawn Massey, 17, was charged with murder in connection with the shooting of Marquiisha Lawrence, who the sheriff’s office also identified as Demarcus Martin.
On Nov. 5, Lawrence was shot multiple times in the bedroom of her Loop Street home before her suspected killer stole her vehicle — a 1996 Mercury Grand Marquis, arrest warrants show.
Massey was taken into custody Monday in Spartanburg, the sheriff’s office said in a news release.
In addition to murder, Massey was charged with possession of a weapon during a violent crime and grand larceny, the sheriff’s office said. He’s being held in the juvenile section of the Greenville County Detention Center and waiting for a bond hearing, according to the release.
A motive for the shooting remains under investigation, but Massey and Lawrence are believed to have previously known each other, the sheriff’s office said.
No other injuries were reported.
“Marquiisha ‘Quii’ Lawrence, like so many who have gone before her, fell victim to a senseless murder. Quii was a young trans woman, at the beginning of this game called life, as we know it in the trans community,” said Eboni Sinclaire, who the Human Rights Campaign identified in an article as Lawrence’s mother in the transgender community.
Sinclaire said Lawrence had an “infectious smile and a heart of gold” and may have been killed for being “who she was and living her truth,” according to the Human Rights Campaign.
Lawrence’s killing was the 45th violent death of a transgender, nonbinary or gender-nonconforming person in the in the U.S. in 2021, breaking last year’s record, the organization reported.
“Marquiisha deserved nothing less than our full commitment to building a better future for trans people,” said Tori Cooper, the Human Rights Campaign’s director of community engagement for the transgender justice initiative.
The Spartanburg County Sheriff’s Office assisted in Massey’s arrest. Greenville County deputies said Lawrence’s vehicle was recovered, information on where and when was not available.
Staff reporter Lyn Riddle contributed to this story.
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This story was originally published November 23, 2021 at 12:19 PM.
