Black Trans Activist and Drag Performer Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-McCray Killed in Virginia | Them
Sanchez-McCray, a title holder in many pageants, was 42.
Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-McCray, a Black transgender woman and drag performer, was shot and killed in Petersburg, Virginia on March 13. She was 42 years old.
Police responding to a shooting found Sanchez-McCray’s body in the early morning, according to early media reports, which misgendered her. Officers entered a home with an “unsecured door” and found Sanchez-McCray, who had suffered multiple gunshot wounds and died at the scene.
No additional details about Sanchez-McCray’s killing were made public at time of writing. She is the first known trans person to die by violence in 2026, although other trans victims may have been misgendered in news reports as well, obfuscating their deaths, as Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents noted on Saturday.
Family and friends identified and mourned Sanchez-McCray — nicknamed Mable — on social media last week, celebrating her Petersburg roots as well as her career as a drag performer and promoter. Sanchez-McCray was a frequent competitor in drag pageants, winning Miss Mayflower EOY in 2015 according to the pageant history archive Our Community Roots. She also put down roots in North Carolina, where she was involved in the Charlotte Black Pride Pageant circuit as a participant and promoter and won the sash for Miss Charlotte FFI-at-Large in 2020, according to social media posts.
