DeMya Gordon was a 20-year-old mother from Memphis who was killed the morning of June 22, 2021. Neighbors in a rooming house on the 500 block of E. McLemore Street in South Memphis reported hearing a heated argument around 7:25 a.m., then a single gunshot coming from the room DeMya shared with her boyfriend. Police found her on the floor with a gunshot wound to her neck; her 2-year-old daughter was on a nearby bed and was physically unharmed. DeMya was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead soon after.

The investigation focused on her boyfriend, 24-year-old Torian Williams. He was arrested a week later and in December 2021 a Shelby County grand jury indicted him on second-degree murder; the District Attorney’s Domestic Violence Unit handled the case. Williams later pleaded to voluntary manslaughter and received probation. At the time of DeMya’s killing he was on probation for prior convictions for aggravated assault and reckless endangerment with a deadly weapon. While serving the manslaughter probation, the probation department received reports from an ex-girlfriend and from Williams’ mother alleging he was physically abusive and threatening.

Did anyone who knew DeMya or her family see signs of escalating danger in the months before June 22, 2021?