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Zoe Spears was 23 when she was fatally shot on a sidewalk in Fairmount Heights, Maryland, on the morning of June 13, 2019. Police found her unresponsive and she was pronounced dead at the scene, prompting an investigation that deeply affected the local LGBTQ+ community.
Investigators initially had only a grainy surveillance image of a suspect van. Over five weeks they reviewed tens of thousands of vehicle records and images to identify the vehicle and its driver. In July 2019 authorities arrested 33-year-old Gerardo Thomas of Baltimore and charged him with first-degree murder; Thomas told detectives he had been in the area with a weapon on the night of the shooting. Detectives said they did not believe Spears was killed because of her gender identity and did not find a clear motive.
Spears had been living in a neighborhood already shaken by violence: a friend, 27-year-old Ashanti Carmon, another transgender woman, had been shot and killed nearby months earlier. Police say they do not believe the two homicides are linked. Does anyone have information about Zoe Spears, her movements that morning, or the van seen on surveillance?