Amyri Dior, a 23-year-old Black/African American woman, was fatally shot during the early morning hours of February 21, 2025, inside a residence near North 95th Street and West Brown Deer Road on Milwaukee’s northwest side. Dior was a transgender woman whose family later remembered her as loving, outgoing and unapologetically herself, with a particular love for singing and dancing.
The shooting left her family searching for answers and initially left Milwaukee police without anyone in custody.
Police were dispatched to the residence at approximately 12:30 a.m. after receiving a report of a shooting. According to the criminal complaint, Dior was still alive when officers reached her. An officer repeatedly asked who had shot her, and Dior eventually answered, “Davion.” She was unable to provide further information before she stopped breathing and lost her pulse. Milwaukee firefighters attempted to provide medical care, but Dior was pronounced dead at the scene. An autopsy performed by the Milwaukee County Medical Examiner’s Office determined that she had suffered three gunshot wounds. Investigators recovered three spent cartridge casings, a brass bullet fragment and Dior’s cellular phone from the residence.
Witness accounts described frightening moments inside the townhouse around the time of the shooting. One resident told investigators that she heard a gunshot and screaming around midnight and later encountered Dior bleeding. According to the criminal complaint, Dior again identified “Davion” as the person responsible and directed the resident toward her phone. Another person inside the residence reportedly heard someone enter through an unsecured rear door, followed by a male voice, a loud noise and a gunshot before someone fled.
Dior’s phone quickly became an important part of the investigation. Detectives recovered Facebook conversations between Dior and an account using the name “Glockboy Davi.” According to prosecutors, the conversations began in January and continued through February 20, the day before the killing. The criminal complaint alleges that Dior had threatened to publicly disclose conversations and photographs involving the account holder’s alleged sexual contact with transgender individuals unless she received money. In the final exchanges, investigators said Dior was requesting an additional $200. Those allegations are part of the prosecution’s account of events and had not been proven at trial.
Detectives identified the person behind the “Glockboy Davi” account as Davion L. Steed of Milwaukee. Investigators compared the Facebook photographs with an earlier booking photograph of Steed and later questioned him. Steed eventually acknowledged that the Facebook account belonged to him and told detectives that he knew Dior. According to the complaint, Steed claimed Dior had demanded hundreds of dollars from him and threatened to make allegations or reveal information about him publicly if he did not pay.
Investigators also examined Steed’s phone records. According to the criminal complaint, activity associated with his phone placed it in a similar geographic area around the time of the killing. Records showed outgoing activity shortly after the shooting, including calls at approximately 12:44 a.m. and 12:53 a.m. Authorities also discovered a message allegedly sent from Steed’s phone the day before Dior was killed asking another person whether they still had bullets because he needed them. Prosecutors later cited the electronic evidence, Dior’s identification of “Davion,” and the messages between the two as significant parts of the case against Steed.
Steed was taken into custody on March 8, 2025, after Milwaukee police attempted to stop a vehicle containing a wanted person. The attempted stop developed into a pursuit that ended in a crash near North 60th Street and West Hampton Avenue. Steed, who was 22 at the time, was taken into custody at the scene. He was subsequently charged in Milwaukee County Circuit Court with one count of first-degree intentional homicide in connection with Dior’s death. His bond was set at $500,000. The charge carries a potential sentence of life imprisonment if he is convicted. Steed also faced separate firearm-related and misdemeanor charges arising from an earlier incident, but those charges were not part of Dior’s homicide case.
On March 21, 2025, Steed appeared in court for a preliminary hearing. The judge found sufficient probable cause for the homicide prosecution to continue and bound him over for trial. The available published reporting reviewed for this synopsis documents the first-degree intentional homicide charge and the decision allowing the case to proceed, but does not establish that Steed has been convicted of Dior’s killing. He therefore remained an accused defendant under the presumption of innocence unless and until guilt was established in court.
In the days after the shooting, Dior’s relatives described a person whose death left a profound absence. Her cousin said Dior was a loving person who treated others well, while her mother urged people to live openly and allow their families to know and love them for who they are. Family members and members of Milwaukee’s LGBTQ+ community later gathered at a March 8 vigil to remember Dior, sing in her honor and call for justice. The gathering reflected both the grief surrounding her death and the determination of those closest to her that her life be remembered for more than the circumstances of the shooting.
