2 people arrested after transgender women murdered in Charlotte. FBI assisted CMPD.
Two arrests have been made in Charlotte following the murder of two Black transgender women, law enforcement officials said Friday.
Dontarius Long, 21, and Joel Brewer, 33, were charged Friday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police officials said. Long and Brewer are both accused of murder and conspiracy to commit robbery with a dangerous weapon, among other charges, police records show.
“Our streets are a lot safer,” said Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Chief Johnny Jennings at a news conference announcing the arrests.
The police investigation into the shooting deaths of the two women is ongoing, officials said. Multiple police agencies were involved in the murder investigations, including the FBI and police in Union County and in South Carolina.
On Thursday, CMPD warned that someone might be targeting local trans women who engage in sex work. Officials said that there has “never been a more vulnerable time” for them.
Jaida Peterson, 29, was discovered in a hotel room at Quality Inn near the airport, on April 4, Easter Sunday. She had been shot, according to CMPD. Her funeral took place Tuesday in South Carolina and loved ones held a vigil last week for her in Charlotte.
Eleven days later, police were called to a hotel in University City. At the Sleep Inn, located on North Tryon Street, early Thursday morning, police officers found a 28-year-old transgender woman fatally shot.
Social media posts from friends and loved ones identify the second victim as Remy. CMPD officials say her last name is Fennell. She was 28. The Observer has not been able to reach her family as of Friday afternoon.
Jaida Peterson was killed in Charlotte. Her sisterhood wants to know: Why?
Violence against trans women
CMPD spokesman Rob Tufano said Thursday that though it was too early to draw connections in the cases, the similarities were undeniable: Both women were transgender, both were sex workers and both were shot to death and found in hotel rooms.
Trans women of color are some of the most vulnerable in the LGBTQ+ community. Sex workers are disproportionately trans women of color — many don’t have any other options because of the racism, homophobia and transphobia they face. They are more likely to be unemployed, more likely to live in poverty, more likely to be without a college degree, more likely to be incarcerated and more likely to be homeless because of the discrimination they face.
They’re also more likely to experience violence in their lifetime. According to the National Center for Transgender Equality, more than one in four trans people has faced a bias-driven assault, and rates are higher for trans women and trans people of color.
Several LGBTQ+ advocacy groups and activists — including Charlotte Uprising, Charlotte Pride, Equality NC and LGBTQ+ Democrats of Mecklenburg County — posted messages of support and safety alerts on Thursday and Friday. Charlotte Uprising organizers are fundraising for alternative housing for Black transgender women who presently do not feel safe in hotels.
CMPD Lt. Bryan Crum said police detectives are looking into the motive behind the murders and said they will explore whether to pursue hate crime charges, if warranted.
Crum, supervisor of the department’s Violent Crime Unit, said investigators are looking into how or whether Long and Brewer know each other. On Friday, he said police have evidence the two arrived and left the hotels together and both have ties to Union County. There is also evidence of sexual activity at the scene of the crimes, Crum said, but it’s still unclear how the suspects connected with the victims.
He said police are confident that they’ve identified both of the people involved in the crimes and that there are no further risks to the community, but as authorities continue to investigate the crimes, they are looking into other possible victims outside of Charlotte.
“The work is not done ... There’s a lot of things that we have to look into,” Jennings said.
Anyone with information related to the case can call 704-432-TIPS or leave information anonymously with Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.
In recent years in Charlotte, at least three other trans women have been murdered and in a fourth case, a trans woman’s cause of death has yet to be determined but police are still investigating. Among these cases, is the unsolved killing of Sherell Faulkner, who died months after being assaulted. She was found critically injured laying near a dumpster in November 2016.
Another mysterious case involving the death of a trans woman in Charlotte stems from a missing person’s case followed by a house fire, where the body of Bubba Walker was found in 2019. Authorities have not determined whether Walker was murdered or died as a result of the fire.
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