Tasiyah Siyah Woodland, an 18-year-old Black transgender woman, was shot and killed in Mechanicsville, Maryland, on March 24, 2023. Woodland had met a friend at Big Dogs Paradise Bar; after about an hour inside she walked past a dark-colored sedan in the parking lot and was struck by multiple gunshots. She managed to get into her friend’s car and they fled, but the assailant’s vehicle pursued them and fired more shots. Her friend pulled over and called for help; Woodland was found with two gunshot wounds to the chest and pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators identified two suspects. Darryl Carlton Parks Jr., 29, of Washington, D.C., was arrested March 28, 2023, and charged with first- and second-degree murder, firearm use in the commission of a felony, reckless endangerment from a car, and illegal possession of a regulated firearm. Witnesses said Parks had been in a physical altercation with Woodland at the same bar about a month earlier.

The Sheriff’s Office said they did not believe Woodland was targeted because of her gender identity; Woodland’s family considers the killing a hate crime. Did anyone who knew Tasiyah or who was in the area that night see the dark-colored sedan or the vehicles involved?