‘They didn’t deserve to die’: Sacramento community mourns death of 2 young Black women

Zarrie Allen was visiting a grave site with friends on July 20 when someone opened fire on the group and took off. Allen, just 18 years old and a prospective Sacramento State student, died at the scene.

In February, Taylor Blackwell was found dead in a south Sacramento hotel room. Her cause of death has still not been determined. She was 19.

Their deaths have become a rallying cry in the Black community for a stop to a wave of violence that has struck Sacramento. And more specifically, activists and community leaders say, their cases highlight the need to prioritize support for Black women.

“If we are going to fight for dead Black men who are shot by the police, we better fight the same way when our Black women are killed,” community activist Berry Accius said. “I’m tired and sick when I see (women) are not our top priority. I am in fear because I have daughters of my own. And to know the possibility of another Black man could take down my own child, that doesn’t’ sit well.

“I will not give an excuse for the violence here in my community,” he said.

Christi Ketchum, founder of Sacramento Sister Circle, a network for Black women, especially those that have been victims of crime, said Black women and girls disproportionately are the victims of crime.

“That happens to Black women and girls all the time and we’ve never heard it on any major media,” she said. “The impact that it has is that they feel like they’re not important. They feel like nobody cares. ... We speak up and protest what happens to Black men but we don’t see that returned.”

“We have to send the message that it’s not OK to kill and harm Black women and girls,” Ketchum said. “We have to send that message. And that has to come from the community, it has to come from the media and it has to come from law enforcement.”

Violent crime increase in Sacramento

There have been 28 homicides in Sacramento County this year, up from 19 at this time last year. Shootings are up nearly 50%. The southern part of the county has become a particular hotbed for violence in what law enforcement has described as a prolonged gang conflict. Gun violence is on the rise within the city of Sacramento as well.

“We are seeing more innocent bystanders lose their lives,” said Sgt. Tess Deterding, Sacramento County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman.

Allen was with a group of friends at Memorial Lawn Cemetery in south Sacramento when shots rang out. Sheriff’s investigators have said they do not think she was the intended target.

Community members held a candlelight vigil for Allen last week, calling for an end to the violence. They chanted “Justice for Zarrie Allen” and urged the people responsible for her killing to turn themselves in.

Blackwell was found dead in a hotel room at the WoodSpring Suites Hotel on Feb. 28. Five months later, her family still doesn’t know what happened to her.

On Monday, about 50 parents and youth gathered outside the hotel on La Mancha Way to bring awareness to Blackwell’s death. Her case had not been in the spotlight in Sacramento until Blackwell’s mother began posting her story on social media.

Some brought their children in strollers. Many wore T-shirts saying “to know Taylor is to love Taylor.” And young people danced and marched across the gated driveway to the hotel, waving at cars as they passed.

Blackwell, a student at Sierra College, had been on a date the night she died with a man she met on Instagram, said her mother, Chiffon Buckner. The man had been “aggressively pursuing her” and even showed up at her work once before.

She went to movies with him, came home and then went out again after midnight without telling anyone, Buckner said.

The next day, Buckner found out from a family friend that Blackwell was believed to be dead in a one-star hotel off Highway 99.

Buckner said detectives at the time wouldn’t allow her to see her daughter and told her Blackwell’s death was believed to be accidental. But when Buckner saw her daughter’s body for the first time nearly a month later at the funeral home, it was covered with injuries.

“I was assuming she had no bruises on her, but that wasn’t the case,” Buckner said, her voice shaking as she spoke. “When I saw her, she had a gash between her eyes on the bridge of her nose. Her lips were cracked and busted up. Her arms were so bruised up that we had to cover them. We had to go buy a sweater and a shawl to cover her arms. And nobody told me that she had bruises on her or any of that, so I wasn’t prepared for it.”

Sacramento Police Department spokesman Officer Karl Chan said Blackwell’s death is being investigated in conjunction with the Sacramento County Coroner’s Office, but has not yet been ruled a homicide.

Coronavirus means fewer youth services

At the vigil for Allen last week, Taylor McClure, a Black woman and Sacramento City College student, expressed anger at the lack of attention paid toward the deaths of Black women.

“I am a Black woman out here supporting Zarrie because I believe that this is happening way too often,” she said. “It’s not talked about when it comes to Black women.”

McClure said she advised Black women to consider carrying arms to be able to defend themselves.

Meg White, a community member who was also concerned with the lack of attention toward the death of Black women, said she was willing to do anything in order to stop the violence.

“I am tired of asking the people in power to care about my life,” White said.

Other speakers expressed anger that they continue to lose people in the community, forcing them to gather at vigils rather than celebrations.

“If we don’t protect our Black women, we don’t have no Black community,” Accius said.

Accius, in part, credited the increase in violence to the interruption of youth programming caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A lot of these kids are stuck in stressful situations at home, and now they’re there more than ever,” he said. “They’re on social media more than ever and it’s become a more and more dangerous thing.”

Prior to the pandemic, community members had successfully worked for years to develop an infrastructure of youth programs to help curb violence and give kids opportunities to work, make new friends and develop positive goals.

The success of those programs, along with funding and support from the city, was recognized earlier this year when Sacramento celebrated two years without a single youth homicide. In 2017, Sacramento’s teens were twice as likely to be killed by homicide than the general population, a Sacramento Bee analysis at the time found.

“(In programs), when you take young people out of their comfort zone, you can have youth together who are not usually together in a non-violent setting,” Accius said. “You can have them in a place where they have to work together to come up with a solution. You can’t’ do that on Zoom.”

“Now you have young people who have a lot of time on their hands,” he said. “You can’t monitor them like you used to . . . and it plays a huge part.”