Oct. 2, 2024

Novela 7- The Murder of Sakia Gunn w/ Beyond the Rainbow

Novela 7- The Murder of Sakia Gunn w/ Beyond the Rainbow

In May of 1987, 15-year-old Sakia Gunn was on her way home in Newark, New Jersey after a night with friends in Greenwich Village. Sakia and her friend were approached by two older men, and when they rebuffed the men's advances, they were attacked....

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In May of 1987, 15-year-old Sakia Gunn was on her way home in Newark, New Jersey after a night with friends in Greenwich Village. Sakia and her friend were approached by two older men, and when they rebuffed the men's advances, they were attacked. Sakia, a proud lesbian, was murdered that night in a crime that rocked Newark and the LGBTQ Community. Join CJ from Beyond the Rainbow: True Crimes of the LGBTQ to hear Sakia's story.

Find CJ and more information about her podcast here

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Each week hosts Kona and Ethan go beyond the headlines and social media posts to do a deep dive into a different missing persons case. Do you hold the key to bringing someone home

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WEBVTT

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Hi guys. I'm Courtney and I'm Lisa, and welcome to

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the next chapter in the Book of the Dead. Brought

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to you by Dark Cast Network Insie Podcasts with a Twist.

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Hello, I'm Coni Gallagher and I'm Ethan Flick. We're the

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husband and wife team behind the True Crime podcast And

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Then They Were Gone. We're a weekly show that covers

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unsolved missing persons cases. These are cases that you, the listener,

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can have an impact on. Some of the people you

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may have heard of, like Kristen Smart or Braceless Pisa,

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but we also bring you missing people of color in

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other cases that haven't gotten the mainstream attention that they deserve.

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You can find us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Good Pods,

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or your favorite podcast app.

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Hey, this is a true crime podcast. I talk about murder,

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I talk about sex. I talk about a lot of

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things that young.

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People shouldn't hear.

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Maybe adults should neither because I tend to squear. Some

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listen at your own discretion. Hey, they're Rainbow Warriors. Welcome

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to be on the Rainbow. True Crimes of the LGBTQ. Plus,

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I'm your fabulous friend and host CJ. So, as some

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of you know, I've been dogs sitting again for my neighbors.

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It was ten days this time while they went on vacation.

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I decided to wait until the dogs went home today

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to record this. That way, I didn't have to edit

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out any barks and any of my shut.

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The fuck up.

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I really love those dogs, but ten days was a lot. Anyway,

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I survived in spite of all the extra gray hairs.

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Find me on the socials as Rainbow Crimes and Dark

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Cast Network just about everywhere. Please consider joining my Patreon,

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the link to Patreon in my show notes. Come see

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me at the end of August in Austin, Texas for

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the True Crime Paranormal Festival. You can get an idea

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of the cool shows that'll be there by visiting the website,

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and I'll leave a link to that as well in

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the show notes. Also, if you type in beyond b

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Ey at checkout, he'll receive fifteen percent off your tickets.

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Some of you might remember I covered the murder of

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DeAndre Matthews as a true crime quickie a few episodes back.

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Just a quick recap. DeAndre, who went by Dre, was

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a gay, black nineteen year old man, and he asked

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to borrow his mom's jeep because he loved to drive.

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Drey had two jobs and he went to school, but

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in his free time, he was mostly a homebody, and

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he loved playing video games and spending time with his family.

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After borrowing his mom's jeep one night in February of

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this year, twenty twenty three, he didn't show up back home.

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His mom's jeep was found burnt not far from his

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home after she reported her son missing. Trey's body was

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found the following day near some railroad tracks in Flatbush,

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New York. Drey had a couple gunshot wounds to his

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head and went to his back. He was also set

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on fire. His mom said she didn't think he was

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seeing anyone, and I made the comment he was working

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two jobs and going to school. I thought it would

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be hard to see anyone with this busy schedule. Well,

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some good news towards justice in that case, Drey's alleged

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killer has been captured, and kudos to the police for

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actually searching Dray's phone. They found pictures of Drey along

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with another nineteen year old man named Isaiah Baez who

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lived in Flatbush, but there's been no confirmation about exactly

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what the relationship between the two young men was, only speculations,

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as they seemed to have known each other for a

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little over a year. Isaiah was arrested and he was

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charged with Drey's murder. Also, a twenty four year old

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man was arrested in connection for tampering with evidence he

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suspected of helping Isaiah dispose of Drey's body. I'll keep

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my ears open for any new developments in this case.

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Also in the case of Ray Haynish that I covered

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way back in September eighteenth, twenty twenty. This was season three,

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episode ten. There's finally been a little bit of movement

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now that that asshole prosecutor Robert Guy is no longer

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the da of the county Ray was murdered in. I

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still keep in contact with Ray's mom, Dotty and his

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sister Shah on Facebook. Just as a reminder, Ray was

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murdered by a local thug named Garrett Kurtz, and this

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was in Indiana. Kurtz also had tortured and murdered a

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thirty year old woman that he had been romantically involved with.

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Her name was Nicole Bowen. All of this happened the

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end of March twenty nineteen. Kurtz admitted to killing Ray

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and Ray's home. Then Kurtz canued to party in Ray's

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home with his group of thug friends. After Kurtz was

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arrested for Nicole's murder, he was accused of Ray's murder too,

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And even though Kurtz admitted to killing Ray, the prosecutor,

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Robert Guy, didn't want to touch Ray's case. Many believed

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it was because of Robert Guy being homophobic. Kurtz even said, oh, yeah,

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I killed him. It was an accident during rough sex.

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I accidentally strangled him to death, which I have to

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tell you is complete and utter unicorn shit. Then Kurtz

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proceeded to still raise car and other items as well.

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Kurtz received fifty five years of incarceration for Nichole's murder.

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Let's hope he gets another fifty five added on for

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Rais Ray's sister and mom just posted that killer Kurtz

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had a hearing already and raised murder. But the hearing

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was simply for Kurts to request another attorney because his

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family couldn't afford the one they had. And this is

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just idiotic as hell, But the court said they pay

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for Kurt's attorneys. To me, that suspicious as fuck. Why

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would taxpayers money go to an attorney for this asshole

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who's already been convicted of one murder. There's something called

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a public defender. Hey, they're free and for low income people.

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Give the asshole Kurts a public defender. What I want

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to know is why is this piece of shit so

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much more important than anyone else that the court is

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going to pay for his attorney? Okay, I just wanted

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to update you on those cases. So this man who

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works or work for Fox News is a crime analyst.

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His name is Rod Wheeler. He went on to the

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Bill O'Reilly show, and I'm sure Bill was criming genes

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with what Rod Wheeler was about to expose. No was

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in his penis. But what those two men did after

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the show, hey, that's their business. Rod was apparently doing

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a segment on ruthless black lesbian gangs that originated out

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of Tennessee called Dikes taking Over the origins of this

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gang and why they were even formed, was to deal

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with homophobic bullying in an urban American school district. Well,

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that sounds reasonable to me. However, their way of handling

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their bullying experiences apparently was to turn it around on

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the bullies and do exactly the same thing their bullies

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were doing to them, fighting fire with fire, so to say, Well,

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that didn't go over so well. A series of alleged

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incidents of same sex harassment by Dikes taking Over that

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was forced on heterosexual students was used by these women

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to re establish a power differential after they experience bullying

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based on their sexuality and their gender expression. While I

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can appreciate the sentiment behind the group, their means intact

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it sound like it was a really poor way to

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handle the situation. But going back to the Bill O'Reilly

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episode with Rod Wheeler which aired in two thousand and seven,

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Rod tells Bill Yo just Bill.

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In addition to carrying weapons and violently attacking people, these

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lesbian gangs are alleged to have rape girl victims they recruit.

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As a matter of fact, some of the kids have

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actually reported that they were actually forced into, you know,

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performing sex acts and doing sex acts with some of

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these people. Rod goes on to tell Bill O'Reilly that

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there are even now gays taking over gangs out there.

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They sodomize their victims with sex toys. Brodden, Bill, can

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you just stop already? Although Bill O'Reilly had to apologize

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for the lies about a national epidemic of black lesbian

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gangs coming after female children, the story had nonetheless achieved

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the desired goal of infotaining its audience by perpetuating both frightening,

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racist and homophobic stereotypes. I consider that to be media

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right wing sensationalism at its finest. And even after that segment,

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Bill O'Reilly attributes murders with lesbians involved to the gang

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dykes taking over. So this case is actually about a

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young girl, a fifteen year old girl named Sakia Gunn.

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And while I was researching.

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Sakie, that's how I stumbled upon this Fox News piece,

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and I didn't want to get too off topic. Well,

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I'm telling you Sekia's story, so I thought i'd lead

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with the bullshit media that actually came up in an

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article about Sekia May eleventh, twenty twenty three, was like

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just last week or a week and a half ago.

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It was the twenty year anniversary of the murder of

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a fifteen year old black lesbian named Sakia Gun. She

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was only fifteen years old, and she was murdered for

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living her truth.

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Now.

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I've had Sakia's case on my paper list and my

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dry erase board, and even my website to cover for

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quite some time. Now with the recent passing of the

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twentieth anniversary of her death, now is the time wow.

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That means she'd be thirty five years old today had

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she been given the opportunity to live out her life.

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And we have no idea what she might have become

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or what greatness she might have achieved. Her tale is

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another tragic story of homophobic hate at the hands of

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misogynistic men grown as men who thought it fitting to

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pick on and torment teenage girls, children and ultimately murder one.

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Something else that is tragic in this case, in spite

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of Sequiah's murder occurring nearly five years after Matthew Shepherd's murder,

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Matthew's murder had over six hundred and fifty articles written

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about it in a seven month timespan. Sakia's brutal killing

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only garnered about twenty five articles total, and that was

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in the same time span seven months after her murder.

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So what does that say about mainstream media? It either

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says Sequia's murder wasn't gruesome enough for media outlets, or

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it says that a teenage black girl murdered wasn't important

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enough for them to cover. Possibly it's a little above.

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Sekiya was a masculine presenting lesbian and researching this case,

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I learned a new term, or maybe it's a very

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outdated term I've never heard of for butch lesbians. It's

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two letters AG and it stands for aggressive. Does that

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mean if a woman is masculine presenting, there are automatically

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assumed to be aggressive. Does that mean all men who

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are masculine presenting are aggressive? Really not fond of that term,

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and I'm surely not aggressive assertive maybe a leader definitely,

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but the word aggressive has total negative connotations to it.

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Sakiah lived with her mom and her grandmother. She came

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out as a lesbian at the age of eleven. She

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was a high school sophomore a ten and she earned

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all straight a's Saquia's love was basketball. She had dreams

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of playing professional basketball someday. The evening of May eleventh,

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two thousand and three, Sakia and four of her female

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teenage friends they took a bus into New York City's

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Greenwich Village from Newark, New Jersey. This was only about

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thirteen miles away. In Greenwich Village, they could live their

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truth without judgment because of the large LGBTQ community in

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Greenwich Village. They visited the Christopher Street Pier, where a

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number of people just like them were known to hang

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out and socialize. It was an evening of fun with

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her friends and other like minded people.

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The girls were.

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Dropped back off by a bus after three am, and

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then they were waiting for another bus that would transport

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them to their home. And as a mom, my first

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thought is nope. But perhaps the parents and guardians of

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these girls thought safety in numbers, and they all ventured

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out together before they would be okay. Or perhaps, like

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many teenage girls, they each told their parents they were

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staying over another one's house. Nevertheless, the night was never

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supposed to head in the direction it did. While the

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girls waited for their connecting bus, a car an old

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white station wagon with two men, twenty eight year old

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Richard McCullough and his friend Alan Parris, drove slowly near

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the girls. The men were whistling and cat calling at

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the young girls. Now, the girls tried to ignore the

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two men, and they even turned their backs to them,

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but not to be deterred, the men stopped their car

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and it kept talking to the girls, encouraging them to

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come closer. They even propositioned them for sex. The girls announced,

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no thanks, we're all lesbians, and for some reason this

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pissed the men off. They got out of the car

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and started to approach the girls. Richard McCullough got physical

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and he grabbed a girl and put her in a chokehold.

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That's when Sakia and her friend Valencia started to combat

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the men. They were hitting the men and trying to

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deflect their unwanted advances. Sekiah was a petite girl, only

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five three and one hundred and ten pounds. At that point,

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Richard McCullough pulled a knife and he lunged it in

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Saquia's chest. Sakia slumped to the ground as the two

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men got back into their car and they sped away.

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Quick thinking Valencia saw another car stopped at a red light,

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and she ran to it started pounding on the driver's

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side window. She was begging for the driver to help.

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The driver was a man, and he agreed to help

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the girls. They loaded Sakia and Valencia into his vehicle

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and he drove to a hospital emergency room, but it

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was too late. Sekia died as val Into was holding her.

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It's been surmised a lot of black straight men don't

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like masculine presenting lesbians, mostly because their manhood is threatened,

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just like the men in South Africa who correct the

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rape women. They developed the attitude you're only gay because

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you haven't had a good dick in you yet, they

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feel by inserting their penis into the women's vagina, the

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women is miraculously going to say, Oh, that's just what

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I needed. I'm no longer a lesbian. Let me go

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put on a dress and make you a sandwich. These

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men are straight up criminals, rapists, and in this case

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of these teenage girls, they're pedophiles. These two men had

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no fucking business pulling up on these teenage girls. What

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the hell were they doing propositioning them in the first place.

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The girls weren't sex workers. They weren't coming on to them.

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They were telling him no. The Newark police started looking

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for the old white station wagon, but within a few days,

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Richard Bacalla and his attorneys showed up at the police

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station on their own. Richard was turning himself in. The

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other man who was with Richard, the knight, Sekhia, was killed.

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He was questioned, but he was quickly released and never

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charged with anything regarding that night, not even harassment. Richard

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was arrested and charged with murder. Of course, a plea

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deal was offered to him, which he scooped up. Richard

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also claimed Sekir ran into his knife. All charges of

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murder were dropped. Richard now faced aggravated manslaughter, aggravated assault,

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and biased intimidation charges. His defense attorney argued that his

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client just simply made a mistake. First of all, Sakiya

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did not just run into a NiFe. And why the

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fuck did he even draw a knife? Why did this

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limptck asshole think it necessary to accost a group of

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teenage girls? Was his manhood that threatened in that pathetic

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He couldn't find himself a woman in his own age. Secondly,

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what Richard did. Wasn't simply a mistake. He took a

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child's life. I am so angry that he was offered

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a plea deal and it was only for manslaughter. There

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were no real hate charge enhancements. Although the justice system

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thought that they were doing Sakia's family and the prosecution

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a big ass favor with the biased intimidation charge tacked on,

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it was the closest thing to a hate crime enhancement

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that this case would ever see. Apparently, the biased intimidation

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charge was rarely ever seen in the New Jersey courts.

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Richard received a sentence of twenty years. He's out now

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on parole and he's living his best life, which we

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can't say for Sekia. Over twenty five hundred people attended

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Sakia's funeral. It was open casket and the young girl

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was laid to rest in a blue track suit. And

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although New Jersey politicians promised Sakia Again supporters they would

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erect a community center in newer and name it in

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Sekia's honor, they never came through. But ten years after

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Sakiah's murder, the Unity Fellowship Church founded an l g B,

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t Q plus center, and although it's not named for her.

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It has a huge mural around it with Sekia's face.

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While Seqia's case still hasn't received the same coverage as

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Matt Shepherd's or even Brandon Tina's, it's received some from

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podcasters who helped keep Sakia's memory alive, including one that

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I did get some information from, called Your True Crime.

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There's also a documentary film that was made in two

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thousand and eight. It's called Dreams Deferred the Sakia Gun

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Film Project. It depicts the homophobic bias spurning Sakiah's murder

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and the lack of media coverage after her death. The

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film reminds us that LGBTQ plus youth are often ignored

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or rejected, and even oftentimes the victim of a violent crime.

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Rest and power. Sakia. Our True Crime Quickie comes to

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us from Toronto, Canada. Not only was twenty twenty a

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shitty year because of COVID, but the life of fifty

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two year old Peter Eli was taken from the world.

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Peter was a disc jockey and video jockey, also known

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as a DJ vjay. He did this and a couple

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hopin' Toronto nightclubs. One was called Woodies and Another one

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was Pegasu's. His stage name was DJ Peter Blue. People

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who knew Peter said he was a sweetheart of a

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guy and the friendliest person you'd ever want to meet.

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We just passed the three year anniversary of Peter's murderers.

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He was found in his apartment complex laundry room. It

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was in the early morning hours of May fourteenth, twenty twenty.

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Peter's body was found by a fire crew responding to

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a fire in the laundry room of the complex. This

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was located near Yon Street in Davisville Avenue. The crew

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was able to quickly put the fire out. Another resident

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said that they heard screaming and yelling and then suddenly

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silence and then a few thuds. She said she was

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about to call the police when the screaming stopped, but

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she became scared for her own well being when the

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silence occurred. After that, she smelled smoke. Peter's roommate said

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Peter went down to the second floored laundry room to

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do well to laundry, but he never returned back to

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their apartment. The Homicide Division of the Toronto Police were

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called and within hours they were examining film footage from

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the apartment building. On the video, they saw a possible suspect,

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and they released a clip of them to the public.

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The following day, a twenty seven year old transient black

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man was arrested. He was charged with murdering Peter. There

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seemed to be no previous relationship between Peter and his

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alleged killer. Peter's autopsy suggested that he was bludgeoned to

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death before the fire was started, and since the two

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men didn't even seem to know each other, there's been

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no motive found in this case. The suspect that was

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arrested is named Rico, and as far as I can tell,

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there's been no resolution to Rico's court case. He has

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been charged with second degree murder, but I haven't seen

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if he's gone to trial yet. Rest in power, Peter.

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I love your Rainbow Warriors. You matter. Remember it's not

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a crime to be gay, not.

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You're a murderer.

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Thank you so much for listening to this chapter of

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00:24:22.720 --> 00:24:26.079
the Book of the Dead, and don't forget that. You

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00:24:26.119 --> 00:24:29.920
can always connect with us on Instagram, you can connect

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00:24:29.960 --> 00:24:32.960
with us on Twitter, and you can absolutely connect with

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00:24:33.039 --> 00:24:37.160
us on Patreon. We also have a Merchtore as well

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00:24:37.599 --> 00:24:40.599
that we have frequent discount codes coming out for so

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00:24:40.640 --> 00:24:44.200
that you guys can get March hand drawn by myself

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00:24:44.480 --> 00:24:47.240
at a better cost. We hope you have a lovely

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00:24:47.319 --> 00:24:51.079
rest of your week and just remember please be kind

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and don't forget to always stay safe, stay curious and

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stay vigilant. Bye guys, Bye m