In the late hours of November 11, 2020, Fendi Mon’ezah Peaches Armstrong, a 39-year-old Black transgender woman, was found shot to death in a Knights Inn motel room on Panola Road in Lithonia, Georgia. DeKalb County police say Armstrong sustained multiple gunshot wounds; another person in the room was unharmed and called 911.

Investigators focused on a money dispute. Armstrong had recently inherited money and had been financially supporting a longtime friend, Terrel Battle, who is also a transgender woman. The two fell out after Armstrong declined to give Battle an additional $20 and Battle was evicted from an adjacent motel room. Surveillance footage allegedly shows Deontavious Brewer exiting a silver BMW, walking to Armstrong’s room and firing 11 rounds through the window while Battle allegedly drove the getaway car. A relative told detectives that Battle had made threats on Facebook and that both Battle and Brewer had confessed at the relative’s home in North Carolina.

Both Brewer and Battle were arrested at an Atlanta apartment and gave confessions to police; Brewer admitted to being the shooter and Battle admitted to driving. If anyone knew Fendi, lived near the motel, or has information about the shooting, please come forward.