MaKayla Gabriel Davis, 20, was shot and killed on September 14, 2023, in a domestic-related incident at a residence on Carpenter Avenue in Albemarle, North Carolina. Police responded just before noon after reports of gunshots and found Davis deceased; investigators said she had been involved in a domestic dispute shortly before the shooting. The death was recorded as the first homicide in Albemarle for 2023.

The next day, 20-year-old Byron Anthony Beckford Jr. — identified as a person of interest, Davis’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her young son Ayden — turned himself in to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department and was arrested and booked into the Stanly County Jail. Davis was born July 15, 2003, in Stanly County, graduated from South Stanly High School in 2021, and was studying Cyber Crime at Stanly Community College. Family and friends gathered at Norwood Community Park wearing purple and releasing balloons to honor her and raise awareness about domestic violence.

If anyone knew MaKayla or has information about the shooting, please come forward to help her family and investigators.