Between January and April 2026, just four months, twelve Black women were murdered across America. Some were killed by intimate partners. Some by strangers. Several were pregnant when they died. Several were mothers whose children will now grow up without them. Two were elected officials serving their communities.
Twelve Black women. Dead in 120 days. That’s one Black woman murdered every ten days and most of America has no idea who they were.
Their deaths barely dominated news cycles, no viral hashtags, no wall-to-wall coverage, just twelve families grieving in silence while the country moved on. This is how America treats Black women. We die, and the nation shrugs but we’re not shrugging. We’re saying their names. We’re telling their stories and we’re demanding that America finally start giving a damn.
JANUARY 2026
Teonia Stokes, 22 | Monroe, Georgia
Teonia was 22 years old and seven months pregnant with a baby boy. She was on the Dean’s List and President’s List at Kennesaw State University, where she majored in elementary education. She was already a teacher. Her family described her as “full of hope, full of life, full of promise.”
On January 25, just two days before her 23rd birthday, Teonia was shot and killed in Monroe, Georgia. Dorreous Brooks and Curdarious Williams have been charged with felony murder and feticide, the killing of an unborn child.
Teonia will never graduate from college. Her baby will never be born. Her future students will never benefit from her teaching. The aunt who described her as “full of promise” will never see that promise fulfilled.
All that hope, all that life, all that potential. Extinguished at 22.
FEBRUARY 2026
Gladys Johnson, 22 | Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Gladys was 22 years old and pregnant. She was found unresponsive in her Fort Lauderdale home after someone intentionally set it on fire.
Medical examiners ruled her death a homicide.
Someone set that fire knowing Gladys was inside. Knowing she was pregnant. Knowing she and her unborn child would burn to death. And then they walked away.
Gladys and her baby are gone. And whoever killed them is still out there.
Daneshia Heller | Fort Lauderdale, Florida
Daneshia was shot and killed in a vacant Fort Lauderdale apartment by Altavious Powell in late February. Surveillance footage shows them walking into the apartment together. Only Powell walked out.
According to police reports, video later shows Powell dragging a heavy object toward a dumpster. Investigators found Daneshia’s body there, covered with cardboard. Powell’s DNA was found inside the apartment where he killed her.
He later sent text messages to the mother of his child confessing to killing two women. Police say Powell also shot and wounded another woman just days before murdering Daneshia. That victim survived.
Daneshia trusted Powell enough to walk into that apartment with him. He repaid that trust by shooting her, dragging her body outside, and throwing her away like garbage.
She deserved so much better than to die alone in a vacant apartment and be dumped by a dumpster. She deserved so much better than Altavious Powell.
MARCH 2026
Victoria Alexander, 38 | Georgia
Victoria was 38 years old and worked as a nurse at a rehabilitation center in Georgia. She dedicated her career to helping people heal.
On March 18, her estranged husband Brandon Alexander, 35, waited for her in the parking lot after her shift ended. When Victoria saw him and tried to run inside the facility to safety, he followed her. He chased her into the building where she worked, where her patients needed her, where she should have been safe.
He shot her multiple times. She died at the scene, surrounded by the people she’d dedicated her life to helping.
Brandon left two suicide notes before turning the gun on himself. He died at the hospital the next morning.
The word “estranged” tells you Victoria was trying to leave. She was trying to escape. She was doing everything right. And Brandon killed her anyway.
Victoria spent her career saving lives. The man who promised to love her made sure she’d never save another one.
Cerina Fairfax | Virginia
Cerina was an accomplished dentist who ran her own thriving family dental practice in Fairfax, Virginia. She graduated magna cum laude from Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of Dentistry and received multiple honors throughout her career, including VCU’s Alumni Association Award for Outstanding Graduate of the Last Decade.
She was also a devoted mother. A judge in her recent divorce proceedings called her “a port in a storm for her children,” noting she had been “the primary caregiver for both children for almost the entirety of their lives, and in all respects.” She was the planner, the scheduler, the caretaker, the cook, the disciplinarian, and the primary nurturer. All while running her own dental practice.
From 2018 to 2022, Cerina also served as Virginia’s second lady during her husband Justin Fairfax’s tenure as lieutenant governor.
In March 2026, she filed for divorce, alleging Justin “has not complied with the post-nuptial agreement in any form since its execution” and “does not make any financial contributions to support the Wife and their children.”
Before the divorce could be finalized, Justin Fairfax killed her inside their Virginia home.
Cerina was a professional. A mother. A community leader. A woman who had served her state as second lady. And her husband, a man who’d held the second-highest elected office in Virginia, murdered her.
Patients who’d seen her just days before her death described her as “a lovely human being, such a warm and gentle person.” One patient said Cerina “really loved what she did, like she took pride in her work. Her profession was an extension of her love and care for people.”
Now she’s gone. Her children have lost their mother. Her patients have lost their dentist. Her community has lost a leader. All because the man she married decided that if he couldn’t control her, she couldn’t live.
Gabryel Ayers, 26 | Chicago, Illinois
Gabryel was 26 years old, a young mother from Chicago. On a Wednesday afternoon, she and her 27-year-old boyfriend were driving on Chicago’s South Side. Her 1-year-old daughter was in the back seat.
Three gunmen opened fire on their car. Fifty bullets were fired in broad daylight.
Gabryel was killed. Her boyfriend was wounded. Somehow, miraculously, not a single one of those 50 bullets hit her baby girl in the back seat.
But that baby will grow up without her mother. She’ll grow up knowing she was in that car when three men shot at it 50 times. She’ll grow up with the knowledge that she was in the back seat when her mother died. She’ll carry that trauma for the rest of her life.
Fifty gunshots. Middle of the day. A 1-year-old witness to her own mother’s murder.
And the gunmen? Still out there.
APRIL 2026
Raven Edwards, 34 | Washington, D.C.
Raven was 34 years old, a single mother of three living with kidney failure in Washington, D.C. Stephon Jeter, 35, was the father of her youngest child, a three-year-old boy.
Raven no longer wanted a romantic relationship with Stephon. She just wanted to co-parent their son. She set a boundary. She said no to a relationship and yes to shared parenting.
Stephon Jeter couldn’t accept that.
On April 9, at 4:30 p.m., he shot and killed Raven in the courtyard of their Glover Park home. Then he shot her 10-year-old daughter.
According to Raven’s mother, Lucy, Jeter targeted the little girl “because she always stood up for her mother.” A 10-year-old child who defended her mother was shot for it.
The girl survived her injuries. But Raven’s three-year-old son watched his father murder his mother. Jeter fled with the boy, leading police on a chase that ended when he crashed his truck and shot himself. The child was later found safe with his paternal grandmother.
Raven is gone. Her 10-year-old daughter is recovering from gunshot wounds and living with the trauma of watching her mother die and nearly dying herself. Her three-year-old son witnessed his father kill his mother. Her children will carry this for the rest of their lives.
All because Raven wanted to co-parent instead of date. All because she said no to a man who couldn’t handle rejection.
Bianca Huntley, 34 | Atlanta, Georgia
Bianca was 34 years old, a mother of two and a quality control manager. She’d moved from North Carolina to Atlanta about nine years earlier, building a life and career for herself and her children.
In early April, Bianca was gunned down on an Atlanta highway in broad daylight.
Her mother, Gloria Allen, called her daughter “a light, a shining light that got snuffed out.” Gloria believes Bianca was specifically targeted, that someone hunted her down and killed her.
Shot on a highway. In the middle of the day. Bianca’s two children will never see their mother again. That light Gloria described, the one that made Bianca who she was, has been extinguished forever.
Imani Dia Smith, 26 | Edison, New Jersey
Imani was 26 years old, a former Broadway child star who performed in The Lion King. She was found with stab wounds in her Edison, New Jersey residence in early April after someone called 911 to report a stabbing.
Imani was transported to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where she was pronounced dead.
She went from performing on one of the world’s most famous stages to being stabbed to death at 26 years old. Her talent, her future, her entire life. Stolen by violence.
Qualeisha Barnes (Siditty), 36 | Atlanta, Georgia
Qualeisha, known professionally as Siditty, was a 36-year-old Detroit-bred rapper who’d relocated to Atlanta to build her music career. She was 14 weeks pregnant.
At 1:23 a.m. on April 8, Atlanta Police found Qualeisha unresponsive inside her white Range Rover Sport, which had come to rest in the middle of a street in the Springside Place SE area of the city. She had sustained multiple gunshot wounds.
Her family told reporters she was shot four times in the face.
Someone shot a pregnant woman in the face. Four times. Then left her dead in her car in the middle of the street.
Qualeisha was building a music career. She was carrying a baby she’d never get to meet. She had dreams she’d never fulfill. All of it ended with four bullets to her face.
She deserved to see her career take off. She deserved to meet her baby. She deserved to live.
Ashanti Allen, 23 | Houston, Texas
Ashanti was 23 years old and eight months pregnant with a baby boy she’d already named Jaxon. It was a high-risk pregnancy, but her family was excited, so excited, to meet their nephew.
Ashanti was in a relationship with Kevin Faux, 24, the father of her unborn child. But Kevin had a history. Court records show that in February 2026, he was convicted of assaulting a family member, and Ashanti was cited as the victim.
He was sentenced to 280 days in jail. He received credit for having already served 143 days. He was released.
Months later, Ashanti was reported missing. On April 10, Texas EquuSearch put out an alert: 23-year-old Ashanti Allen was missing from Houston, last seen near her home. Eight months pregnant. Experiencing a high-risk pregnancy.
Her body was found on April 17 on Chimney Rock Road.
Kevin Faux has been charged with murder in connection to her death. As of now, he’s still on the run.
Ashanti is dead. Jaxon will never be born. The family that was so excited to meet him will never get that chance. And the man convicted of assaulting Ashanti, the man the justice system released after 143 days, is now wanted for killing her and their unborn son.
143 days in jail wasn’t enough to save Ashanti’s life. It wasn’t enough to save Jaxon. And now Kevin Faux is out there somewhere, a fugitive wanted for murder.
This is what happens when the system fails Black women. We die. Our babies die. And the men who kill us keep running.
Nancy Metayer Bowen | Coral Springs, Florida
Nancy was Florida’s vice mayor, an environmental scientist, and a rising political star. She was the first Black and Haitian American female member of the Coral Springs City Commission, first elected in 2020 and re-elected in 2024. Her fellow commissioners had just appointed her to serve a second term as vice mayor.
Before joining the City Commission, Nancy “led environmental justice efforts across the state of Florida, focusing on enhancing community resilience.” Her work on the Broward County Soil and Water Conservation District was “instrumental in addressing water crises and responding to major natural disasters, including Hurricanes Irma, Michael, and Dorian.”
Her family said she was “a cherished member of our family, but also a dedicated public servant who committed her life to improving the lives of others. Throughout her years in public office, she led with integrity, compassion, and an unwavering sense of purpose.”
Florida Democratic Party Chair Nikki Fried said Nancy “was not simply our Vice Chair of Haitian Outreach. She was a scientist. An environmentalist. A brilliant barrier-breaker who made history… A Vice Mayor who showed up every single day for the people she served.”
U.S. Rep. Jared Moskowitz said he was “just with her on Saturday. She just buried her brother. She was about to announce she was running for Congress.”
Nancy was about to run for Congress. She’d just buried her brother. She was grieving and planning her political future at the same time.
On April 16, officials grew concerned when Nancy missed scheduled meetings and wasn’t responding to messages. When police arrived at her home, they found “outward, explosive-like damage” on the second floor. SWAT teams entered and found Nancy’s body in her second-floor bedroom.
Her husband, Stephen Bowen, 40, was arrested and charged with premeditated murder and tampering with or fabricating physical evidence.
According to the arrest affidavit, police spoke to a person who said Bowen told him he shot Nancy “three times with a shotgun the previous night and then slept downstairs.” When asked why, Bowen allegedly said he “couldn’t take it anymore.”
Police found three spent shotgun shells wrapped in the blankets with Nancy’s body.
Stephen Bowen shot his wife three times with a shotgun. Then he slept downstairs in the same house with her body. The next morning, while officials were looking for Nancy, he went to a relative and confessed. And when police found Nancy, she was wrapped in blankets with the shotgun shells that killed her.
Nancy was a leader. A scientist. A barrier-breaker. A public servant who showed up every day for her community. She was about to run for Congress. She had just buried her brother and was still showing up to serve.
And the man she married shot her three times with a shotgun because he “couldn’t take it anymore.”
Nancy’s family said her “legacy will live on not only in the policies she helped shape, but in the countless lives she touched.”
She deserved to run for Congress. She deserved to keep serving. She deserved to keep breaking barriers. She deserved to live.
The Pattern Is Undeniable
Twelve Black women. Four months. January to April 2026.
Teonia, 22, pregnant, shot. Gladys, 22, pregnant, burned alive. Daneshia, shot and dumped by a dumpster. Victoria, 38, nurse, shot by her estranged husband at work. Cerina, dentist and Virginia’s former second lady, killed by her ex-lieutenant governor husband. Gabryel, 26, shot in front of her 1-year-old daughter. Raven, 34, shot along with her 10-year-old daughter by her ex. Bianca, 34, mother of two, shot on an Atlanta highway. Imani, 26, Broadway star, stabbed to death. Qualeisha, 36, pregnant rapper, shot four times in the face. Ashanti, 23, eight months pregnant, murdered by the father of her child. Nancy, vice mayor about to run for Congress, shot three times with a shotgun by her husband.
Some were killed by intimate partners. Men who claimed to love them. Husbands. Exes. The fathers of their children. Men who couldn’t accept being left, couldn’t handle being told no, couldn’t stand losing control.
Some were killed by strangers. Shot on highways. Murdered in vacant apartments. Killed for reasons we may never fully understand.
Four were pregnant when they died. Teonia, Gladys, Qualeisha, and Ashanti. Four women, four unborn babies. None of those children will ever be born. Their families will never meet them.
Many were mothers. Raven’s children watched their father kill their mother. Gabryel’s 1-year-old was in the back seat when her mother was shot. Cerina’s and Nancy’s children have lost their mothers to the men who fathered them or married them.
Two were elected officials. Cerina served as Virginia’s second lady. Nancy was Florida’s vice mayor and about to run for Congress. They were leaders, public servants, women who dedicated their lives to their communities. And they were murdered in their own homes by their husbands.
All of them were Black women. And all of them deserved better than what America gave them.
The Systems Keep Failing Us
Kevin Faux assaulted Ashanti Allen in early 2026. The justice system convicted him and sentenced him to 280 days in jail. He served 143 days, less than five months, and was released.
Months later, Ashanti and her unborn son Jaxon were dead. Kevin Faux is now a fugitive wanted for murder.
143 days wasn’t enough. The conviction wasn’t enough. The jail time wasn’t enough. Nothing the system did was enough to save Ashanti’s life or Jaxon’s.
Victoria Alexander’s husband was “estranged,” meaning she was trying to leave. She was doing what we tell women to do: get out, get safe, get away. She got a nursing job, she had her own life, she was building distance.
Brandon Alexander waited for her in a parking lot and shot her to death at her workplace.
Leaving didn’t save her.
Cerina Fairfax filed for divorce. She went through the legal system. She documented that Justin wasn’t complying with their agreement, wasn’t supporting their children financially. She was doing everything by the book.
Justin Fairfax killed her before the divorce could be finalized.
The legal system didn’t save her either.
Raven Edwards just wanted to co-parent. She set a boundary with Stephon Jeter: we can parent our son together, but I don’t want a romantic relationship. That’s a reasonable, healthy boundary.
Stephon shot her and her 10-year-old daughter for it.
Setting boundaries didn’t save her.
When Black women try to leave abusive relationships, we’re at the highest risk of being murdered. We know this. It’s documented. It’s studied. It’s preventable.
And yet it keeps happening. Because the systems that should protect us are fundamentally broken.
Restraining orders are pieces of paper. They can’t stop bullets.
Assault convictions mean nothing if abusers are released in time to kill their victims.
Divorce proceedings can’t protect women who are murdered before the ink dries.
And Black women keep dying while the systems meant to save us process paperwork and schedule court dates and release dangerous men back into our lives.
The Silence Is Deafening
Twelve Black women murdered in four months.
How many national news segments covered their deaths? How many viral hashtags demanded justice? How many politicians gave speeches about the epidemic of violence against Black women? How many candlelight vigils were held in their honor?
Where was the outrage?
When white women go missing or are murdered, America stops. Cable news runs 24/7 coverage. Podcasters dissect every detail. Social media explodes. Politicians promise action. The entire country focuses on finding them, solving their cases, bringing their killers to justice.
But when Black women die, America barely notices.
Our deaths don’t dominate news cycles. Our names don’t trend. Our families grieve in silence while the country moves on to the next thing.
This is the reality of being a Black woman in America: our lives don’t matter enough. Our deaths don’t shock enough. Our murders don’t inspire enough outrage to force change.
Twelve Black women in four months. That’s one Black woman murdered every ten days.
And most of America has no idea who they were.
We Deserve Better
Black women shouldn’t have to be perfect victims to matter. We shouldn’t have to be mothers, professionals, Broadway stars, or elected officials for our deaths to be taken seriously.
We deserve to be safe when we’re pregnant. Safe from the fathers of our children and safe from strangers who want to hurt us.
We deserve to leave abusive relationships without being killed for setting boundaries.
We deserve to go to work without being ambushed in parking lots.
We deserve to drive down highways without being shot at.
We deserve to exist in our own homes without being murdered by the men who claim to love us.
We deserve trust that isn’t weaponized against us.
We deserve media coverage when we’re killed that matches the coverage given to missing and murdered white women.
We deserve justice systems that actually protect us before we’re dead, not just process our murders after.
We deserve to live.
What Needs to Change Right Now
The systems protecting Black women are catastrophically broken. Here’s what must happen:
Stricter enforcement of domestic violence convictions. When someone is convicted of assaulting their partner, they shouldn’t be released in time to kill that partner. Kevin Faux served 143 days for assaulting Ashanti. Months later, she was dead. Longer sentences. Mandatory intervention programs. GPS monitoring. Lifetime firearm bans. Real consequences that actually keep victims safe.
Dedicated, long-term resources for women leaving abusive relationships. Safe houses with options beyond 30 days. Financial assistance so women aren’t trapped by economics. Free legal representation. Childcare. Job training. Transportation. Mental health services. Everything needed to actually escape and rebuild, not just survive the first month.
Automatic high-risk assessments for pregnant women in abusive relationships. Pregnancy is one of the most dangerous times for women in violent relationships. When a pregnant woman reports abuse, that should trigger immediate, intensive intervention. Ashanti, Teonia, Gladys, Qualeisha. Four pregnant women murdered. Their babies died with them. This is preventable.
Federal tracking of femicide. We don’t even have accurate national data on how many women, especially how many Black women, are killed by intimate partners or strangers each year. We can’t solve what we don’t measure. We need a national femicide database that tracks every case, every conviction, every failure of the system.
Media accountability. Black women’s murders deserve the same coverage, the same public outcry, the same investigative resources, the same national attention as any other victim. The disparity in coverage is a disparity in value. And Black women’s lives are just as valuable.
Funding for Black women’s safety organizations. Groups led by and for Black women know what our communities need. They understand the intersections of racism and misogyny that make Black women particularly vulnerable. They’re doing the work already. Fund them properly. Listen to them. Implement their recommendations.
Prosecution and conviction. Arrests mean nothing without trials. Trials mean nothing without convictions. Convictions mean nothing without real sentences. The cycle of arrest-release-kill has to end. Prosecutors must prioritize these cases. Juries must take them seriously. Judges must hand down sentences that protect victims.
Say Their Names
Teonia Stokes, 22, pregnant, teacher, full of promise.
Gladys Johnson, 22, pregnant, burned alive.
Daneshia Heller, shot and discarded like trash.
Victoria Alexander, 38, nurse who healed others.
Cerina Fairfax, dentist, mother, Virginia’s second lady.
Gabryel Ayers, 26, mother shot in front of her baby.
Raven Edwards, 34, mother of three, killed for setting boundaries.
Bianca Huntley, 34, mother of two, a shining light.
Imani Dia Smith, 26, Broadway star.
Qualeisha Barnes (Siditty), 36, rapper, 14 weeks pregnant, shot in the face.
Ashanti Allen, 23, eight months pregnant with Jaxon.
Nancy Metayer Bowen, vice mayor, about to run for Congress.
These women had names. They had futures. They had people who loved them and needed them. They had children who’ll grow up without mothers. They had dreams they’ll never fulfill. They had contributions they’ll never make to this world.
They deserved to live.
And we, all of us, failed to keep them safe.
Black women keep dying. One every ten days since January. And America keeps looking away, keeps staying silent, keeps treating our murders like background noise instead of a crisis.
That has to stop. Now.
We deserve safety. We deserve protection. We deserve justice.
We deserve to live.
