TG Murders Rock DC
by Doreen Brandt
365Gay.com Newscenter in Washington

Updated: August 13, 2002
7:26 a.m. EDT/+5GMT/-3PDT

(Washington, DC) Two transgendered teens were gunned down as they
sat in a car in SE Washington, Monday.

Their Toyota Camry was parked at the curb on 50th near C Street. The
DC Fire Department said both women showed no vital signs when
paramedics arrived on the scene.

Deon Davis, 18, left, and Stephanie Thomas, 19 were shot multiple
times in their heads and bodies. Police said that at least ten
bullets hit the women.

The scene of the shooting, at a corner with vacant apartment
complexes on two sides, was less than a block from Thomas's apartment.

Detectives from the DC Police Violent Crimes Branch have taken over
the investigation.

Witnesses said that the shots were fired by one or more occupants of
a black vehicle, possibly a Mercury or Ford Crown Victoria.. The
witnesses told police that the car drove up alongside the Toyota and
the shooting began. The car then sped off.

Officers said the victims did not stand a chance.

Investigators said are few clues in the slayings and no motive.
Officers said it appeared clear that robbery was not a motive, but it
is not known if the killer or killers knew the victims were
transgendered.

"It is too early to determine if this was a hate crime," one officer
said.

Family members and friends said Thomas and Davis had met in their mid-
teens through a social service agency that helps transgender youth
and had grown close as they gave up their male identities and began
dressing all the time as women.

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