Brandon Tay Dior Thomas

Brandon “Tay Dior” Thomas was a 17-year-old Black transgender female described by her family as a loving and kind-hearted person. Her grandmother, Rolanda Carl, remembered her as being "shy but so fearless" with "natural leadership abilities" and a "huge smile on her face showing her dimples." The oldest of five children, including a twin brother named Braeden, Thomas was said to love doing her hair and would "help anyone." Her mother, Victoria Thomas, wrote that her daughter "lived life to the fullest and she was able to live in her truth."

In the early morning of May 7, 2024, Thomas’s life was cut short in Mobile, Alabama. Around 3:30 a.m., police responded to reports of shots fired on Darwood Drive. When they arrived, officers found a vehicle that had crashed into a residence. In the front yard of the home, they discovered Thomas, who had been fatally shot.

The investigation quickly led authorities to a suspect. Within hours of the shooting, Mobile Police arrested 20-year-old Carl Washington Jr. in connection with the crime. He was charged with murder and with shooting into an occupied or unoccupied building or vehicle.

Washington initially pleaded not guilty to the charges against him. The case concluded on September 28, 2026, when Carl Mitchell Washington Jr. pleaded guilty to the murder of Brandon Thomas. Under a plea deal, he was sentenced to 25 years in prison.