A love affair unraveled before a Black transgender woman was fatally shot in rural South Carolina

By JAMES POLLARD
Associated Press/Report for America

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — The secretive relationship between a South Carolina man and a Black transgender woman has been the focus of the nation’s first federal trial over an alleged hate crime based on gender identity. The Department of Justice says Daqua Lameek Ritter fatally shot Dime Doe in August 2019 to keep their sexual affair from getting further exposed to the rural community of Allendale. It remains unclear what transpired in the less than three hours between the time police pulled Doe over in a traffic stop and authorities discovered her body. But text messages and testimony from the community suggest that Ritter spent the weeks leading up to Doe’s death trying to dispel rumors of their dalliance.