A 19-year-old man is charged with stabbing a popular lesbian caterer during an argument over missing folding chairs.
Chef Tyonne Johns, 35, had just finished catering a gay wedding at Ellanor C. Lawrence Park in Fairfax County, Va., when she was confronted by Kempton Bonds, of Clifton, Md.
Bonds accused Johns of stealing the park’s folding chairs.
“Chairs took my friends life. She ordered chairs and was just trying to get them back on the truck and he thought she was taking his chairs,” Johns’ friend Seymone Spence told WUSA.
Spence said Bonds was confrontational with the guests, most of whom were members of the gay community.
“He had no respect for us. The way he talked to us. The way he tried to dictate everything around us was just wrong,” Spence told WUSA. “He knew he was going to hurt somebody. If anybody would’ve said something, it just so happened to be Ty because she had to separate the chairs.”
“At approximately 10:50 p.m., as the event came to an end, the verbal altercation continued and escalated with the suspect, Bonds, apparently stabbing the victim with a knife,” a Fairfax County Police Department spokesman told the NY Daily News.
Police retrieved the knife used in the crime but have not charged Bonds with a hate crime.
Bond is being held on 2nd degree murder charges.
Friends created a GoFundme page to raise funds to pay for Johns’ funeral.
“We are asking the community to stand, take action, and bridge the financial gap resulting from the horrific hate crime that transpired in the suburbs of our nation’s capital,” said Johns’ friend Eraena Seymore on GoFundMe.
Johns was described as “a true humanitarian” who distributed extra food to the homeless.
She also assisted as a gym teacher at an elementary school near her home.
So far, public donations have raised $2,460 toward a goal of $30,000.
