Charlotte-Mecklenburg police have arrested a man in connection with the shooting death of a male-to-transgender.
According to WSOC-TV, officers were called to the 1400 block of Rosetta Street, just north of uptown, after reports of gunshots fired around 3 a.m. Tuesday.
Derrick Banner, 26, (pictured left) was found inside a car, suffering from a gunshot wound. Paramedics pronounced him dead at the scene. Banner is the city’s 64th homicide victim and the 20th transgender killed in the United States in 2017.
Officers arrested 18-year-old Montavious Berry, pictured above right, around 11 p.m. Tuesday and charged him with murder, armed robbery and shooting into an occupied vehicle.
Banner’s friend, who asked to remain anonymous, said Banner, who went by the name “Derricka,” was undergoing hormone treatments to look more feminine. The friend said he hoped Banner’s sexuality won’t be the reason for his death.
“He needs to rot in jail for life for taking my friend’s life like that,” said the friend, who is also undergoing hormone treatment to look more feminized.
The friend said Banner met the shooter online, and the 2 friends traveled by car from Lenoir to Charlotte to meet the man.
The friend said he hid in the trunk of the car and heard the gunfire.
“Derrick was told to come alone, but he didn’t want to go because of the weather,” the friend told WSOC-TV. “So I went with him … and said I would have to hide and so I hid in the trunk of the vehicle.”
The friend said after he and Banner arrived in Charlotte, the shooter got into the car and drove around Charlotte with Banner.
The friend, who was in the trunk, said he realized the moment Banner was in trouble after Berry pulled out a gun.
“[Banner] was like, ‘Don’t point it at me like that. Don’t point it at me like that,’ and then not a second afterward I heard two gunshots,” the friend said.
The friend said he tried to resuscitate Banner after the gunman fled on foot.
Banner’s grandmother, Jo Banner, was inconsolable after his death.
“I’ve been crying ever since it happened,” she told WSOC. “I can’t get over with it. I loved Derrick. He was in his own ways, but I loved him.”
