On a tragic Saturday afternoon, December 11, 2021, the life of 41-year-old Tara Labang, an Asian woman of Filipino and Hawaiian descent, was cut short in a devastating act of violence. Labang, a dedicated Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetist at Ascension Saint Agnes Hospital, was found deceased in her Federal Hill home on Marshall Street in Baltimore.
Police, responding to an alarm at her residence, discovered signs of forced entry and found Labang suffering from fatal gunshot wounds.
The perpetrator was her ex-boyfriend, 44-year-old Rajaee Shareef Black. In a chilling turn of events that unfolded publicly, Black took to Facebook Live after killing Labang, confessing to the murder. In the video, he stated, 'I just shot my ex-girlfriend in the head,' and claimed she was pregnant. He expressed that he couldn't go to prison and blamed his depression on his ex-wife, declaring she would be his next victim before he intended to take his own life.
True to his word, Black then drove to Columbia, Maryland. There, he confronted his ex-wife, 42-year-old Wendy Natalie Black, in the entryway of her apartment building and fatally shot her before turning the gun on himself. The former couple’s two young children were found unharmed in Rajaee Black’s car in a nearby parking lot. They did not witness the horrific events.
The motive behind the murder-suicide appeared to be rooted in deep-seated personal turmoil. Black was reportedly embroiled in bitter and lengthy custody disputes with both Wendy Black and Tara Labang. Court records revealed a history of domestic strife between Rajaee and Wendy Black, including multiple protective orders she had filed against him, expressing fear for her life. These requests for protection, however, had been denied. The tragedy left friends, family, and colleagues of all three individuals, who were all nurses, in a state of shock and devastation.
