On July 28, 2023, around 2:19 a.m., 30-year-old Maya Jennifer Simmons of Ladson, South Carolina, was shot in the parking lot of the Bloom Room restaurant on Dorchester Road in North Charleston. Simmons, a Black mother of eight known as Maya or MJ, was taken to a local hospital and pronounced dead shortly before 3:00 a.m.

The North Charleston Police Department opened a homicide investigation. On August 11, 2023, 39-year-old Kaisha Simmons Birch surrendered to authorities and was charged with manslaughter and possession of a deadly weapon during the commission of a violent crime. At Birch’s bond hearing her attorney claimed self-defense, saying Simmons had charged at Birch with a knife; Simmons’ family strongly disputed that account, insisting Maya was unarmed and had not provoked the confrontation. Witnesses suggested the dispute may have involved a man named Tyrone Jones, who reportedly had ended a relationship with Birch and proposed to Simmons; Birch was said to have learned about an engagement celebration via social media and gone to the Bloom Room to confront Simmons.

A judge set a $200,000 surety bond for Birch and placed her on house arrest with no contact allowed with Simmons’ family and no social media use. The family remembers Maya as a woman of faith devoted to her children who could light up any room. Did anyone who attended the engagement celebration or was in the Bloom Room parking lot that night see what happened?