Queer Mom and Partner Killed Defending Daughter During Mass Shooting

• Politics and Law, Violence and Tragedy • in memoriam, shootings, virginia

(Content warning for extreme violence.) A woman and her partner were killed in Norfolk, Virginia, last week, as they sought to defend one woman’s 19-year-old daughter from her boyfriend. One other woman was killed and two others, including the pregnant daughter, were injured.

In memoriam

On the night of November, 3, partners Detra “Dee” Brown and Nicole Lovewine were outside with neighbors in their Young Terrace community, talking with other adults while children played outside, reported the Virginian-Pilot. A car pulled up and Lovewine’s 19-year-old daughter got out with her boyfriend.

Neighbors told WTKR that the teen and her boyfriend were having an argument in the car. As she got out, he shot her. Lovewine and Brown, along with Sa’idah Costine of Lithonia, Georgia, and an unidentified woman, ran to help, and Palmer shot them both. Lovewine, Brown, and Costine were killed; the other woman and Lovewine’s daughter were injured and taken to the hospital. Norfolk police took the boyfriend into custody.

Lovewine also has a son who is 10 or 11 and was at the scene of the shooting, said the Virginian-Pilot, and two other children, according to 13NewsNow. (All of the coverage I’ve seen indicates that only Lovewine, not Brown, considered herself to be their mother, although the Virginian-Pilot says the women had been together for over a decade. I am hesitantly following their lead, but if I learn that Brown also felt she was a mother, I will update this piece accordingly.) Costine is the mother of six children, ages six to 26, and a grandmother of two. Three of her children witnessed the shooting, reported WTKR.

Staff of the Norfolk Redevelopment and Housing Authority, which owns the Young Terrace housing units, went door-to-door the next day to ensure neighbors have access to counseling services, they said in a statement. Counselors are available for walk-in appointments at the Young Terrace community center this week. Those seeking support for domestic violence can call the VA Family Violence Hotline at 800.838.8238. Children present at the shooting, many of whom go to the P. B. Young Elementary school nearby, are receiving counseling from Norfolk Public Schools, reported WTKR.

Neighbors organized a vigil for the victims Thursday night, and a local Stop the Violence Team is not only calling for an end to gun violence, but more specifically, lighting for the housing complex to help reduce crime.

Friends and family have also launched GoFundMe pages to help the families of the victims. (As always, do your own due diligence before contributing to any online fundraiser.)

My heart goes out to all of their family, friends, and neighbors, particularly the children. Our country needs a prolonged and multi-pronged effort from the public sector, private sector, and individuals combined to enact greater gun control and end gun violence.

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