A 31-year-old man has been charged with first-degree murder, accused of shooting his former girlfriend, a 25-year-old woman, point blank in the car after begging the young trans woman to ‘see’ him after their breakup months ago.

The attack took place on Guilford College Road in Greensboro. Juchuan “Cocoa” Hamilton, a transgender woman, was found in a car with three gunshot wounds.

According to friends, she broke up with her estranged boyfriend, Jeremy Reynolds, four months ago, but he continued to text her and try to see her. The pair was together for two years before Hamilton ended their relationship.

Officers arrived and found Hamilton in a crashed vehicle, suffering from multiple gunshot wounds. Hamilton died at the scene, police said.

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Family members revealed that Hamilton was shot through the driver’s side window of her car. When police arrived on the scene, they found that Hamilton had managed to drive a short distance after being shot but then crashed her car.

Reynolds was denied bond when he appeared in Guilford County District Court on Wednesday and is currently held at the Guilford County Detention Center.

According to the victims family, Juchuan “Cocoa” Hamilton “truly came into her own” when she began doing ballroom competitions with fellow drag queens around the Southeast. Her mother said she was a strong and joyful person who had claimed her identity early in life. Hamilton used the drag name “Quanesha Shantel” in shows.

Toi Ni’Cole Ratliff, Hamilton’s mother, who lives in Fayetteville, shared in a phone interview with local Greensboro news outlet, News&Record: “She came to me at age 11 and said, ‘Mama, I want to transition over.’ You wouldn’t imagine that a young person would know it at that age, but she did. And I told her, ‘I’ll support you through it. But if you do it, do it right.’ And she had it from there!”

Ratliff last heard Hamilton’s voice on Sunday morning. “She was happy and full of joy, laughing. She didn’t mention any problems,” Ratliff said.

A friend known as ‘Owens,’ who lives in Charlotte, added that Hamilton was very excited that she had just enrolled in nursing school, which was a perfect profession for her. Owens, who goes by the stage name BigBaby, says she was considered Hamilton’s drag father, a longstanding tradition in the community. They’ve been helping Hamilton’s mom deal with the tragedy.

Owens praised Hamilton, known by the drag name “Quanesha Shantel,” for her radiant complexion and stunning outfits, which she showcased throughout the Southern states and in Chicago.

Dealing with her grief is especially tough for mom Ratliff, she confessed. Hamilton lost her father when she was young, and the mother-daughter pair leaned on each other for support. “Because I had her at 14,” she shared. “We practically grew up together. She was more than a daughter, she was my best friend.”

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The crime, which is the 38th homicide in the city in 2024, is being probed as a domestic-related incident by the Greensboro Police Department. LGBTQ+ women, trans individuals, and non-binary people are just as likely, if not more so, to have experienced intimate partner violence (IPV) at some point in their lives compared to their cisgender and heterosexual counterparts.

Tragically, at least three women lose their lives daily in domestic violence situations, according to Sanctuary for Families. As per the National Domestic Violence Hotline, 1 in 4 women (24.3 percent) and 1 in 7 men (13.8 percent) aged 18 and older in the US have been victims of severe physical violence by an intimate partner in their lifetime.

In 2020, around 47,000 women and girls worldwide were killed by their intimate partners or other family members, according to the most recent data available from the UN. The signs are often difficult to recognize until it’s too late.

Transgender individuals experience IPV at rates even higher than their cisgender peers; an analysis of the 2015 United States Transgender Survey found that over half (54%) of all trans and non-binary people have experienced IPV at some point in their lives.

Anyone affected by abuse and in need of support can contact the National Domestic Violence Hotline (1-800-799-7233). Advocates are available 24/7 and can also be reached via live chat on thehotline.org or by texting “START” to 88788 or “LOVEIS” to 22522.