In Memphis, Tennessee, a 28-year-old Black transgender woman named Cleon Dewayne Starr Brown Osby, who was known to her friends and family as Starr Brown, was found dead in her car on the morning of April 19, 2024. She had been fatally shot once on her left side. Starr was a graduate of Raleigh-Egypt High School and was known for her uplifting personality and beautiful soul. She worked various jobs in food service and as a bag handler for FedEx.
Her social media presence showed a love for fashion, makeup, and tattoo art, and she was a proud and loving aunt to her nieces and nephews.
On the night of her death, Starr had just finished her shift at a Checkers drive-thru restaurant. Surveillance footage showed her leaving the premises in her Pontiac G3 just after 2:30 a.m. with a coworker, 20-year-old Alexavier Williamson. Several hours later, police responded to a report of a single-vehicle crash and discovered Starr's body in a wooded area on Rolling Woods Drive.
The investigation into Starr's death took a significant turn on April 28, when Alexavier Williamson walked into a police station and voluntarily confessed to the killing. While he reportedly gave a full confession, law enforcement officials have not publicly disclosed a motive for the shooting. Williamson was subsequently arrested and charged with second-degree murder. This was not Williamson's first encounter with the law, as he had been previously charged with second-degree murder in a separate incident in 2022.
Tragically, this was not the first time Starr Brown had been a victim of gun violence. In October of the previous year, she had been shot in the leg during an attempted robbery as she waited for an Uber after work. In that incident, she was confronted by two men and managed to use mace on her attacker before being shot as she tried to flee.
