1 week Ago
GREENSBORO — Juchuan "Cocoa'' Hamilton truly hit her stride when pacing glamorous ballroom competitions in Coach and Chanel finery with fellow drag queens around the Southeast, friends and family said, four days after Hamilton's violent death. The Raeford native was shot three times on Sunday as she sat in her car outside her estranged boyfriend's apartment at 423 Guilford College Road. She was a strong and joyful person who had fiercely claimed her identity early in life, her mother said.
"She came to me at age 11 and said, 'Mama, I want to transition over,'" Toi Ni'Cole Ratliff of Fayetteville said during a phone interview. "You wouldn't imagine that a young person would know it at that age, but she did,'' Ratliff said. "And I told her, 'I'll support you through it.
But if you do it, do it right.' And she had it from there!'' Hamilton's estranged boyfriend Jeremy Reynolds, 31, of Greensboro, was arrested and charged with first-degree murder and firing a barreled weapon into an occupied dwelling or vehicle. Family said that Hamilton, 26, had told Reynolds she was ending their relationship.
She was shot through the driver's side window of her car. The 38th homicide in the city in 2024, the crime is being investigated as a domestic-related incident, according to the Greensboro Police Department. When police arrived on the scene, they found that Hamilton had managed to drive a short distance after being shot, but had then crashed her car.
Reynolds appeared in Guilford County District Court on Wednesday and was denied bond. He remains in the Guilford County Detention Center. Domestic violence against transgender individuals is considered a public health problem across the U.
S., according to the National Institutes of Health. Intimate partner violence, or IPV, is 2.
2 times higher for transgender people than the cisgender population, NIH statistics show. The Human Rights Campaign found that in 2023, 32 people in the U.S.
who were transgender or do not identify with traditional gender roles were victims of violent deaths. Of those, 84% were people of color, while 50% were Black transgender women like Hamilton. "The boys don't want to love them out loud," said Ira Owens, a close family friend, of transgender women.
"That's why so many girls end up dead." Ratliff heard Hamilton's voice for the last time on Sunday morning, she said. "She was happy and full of joy, laughing.
She didn't mention any problems,'' Ratliff said. "She was nervous about enrolling in nursing school,'' said Owens of Charlotte. "She was a loving and caring person, so it was the perfect profession for her,'' said Owens, who said he goes by the stage name BigBaby and was considered Hamilton's drag father, a longstanding tradition in the Ballroom scene, an African-American and Latino underground LGBTQ+ subculture.
Ballroom competitors vie for cash prizes and crowns in many categories, including drag and modeling categories, such as "face" and "sex siren.'' Hamilton, who used the drag name "Quanesha Shantel,'' showcased her luminous complexion and fetching ensembles throughout the Southern states and in Chicago, Owens said. "She was just pretty as hell, and a bougie little thing,'' he said.
Owens filled a critical void for Hamilton, her mom said. "Cocoa lost her dad when she was just 2. And during middle school and high school, she was hell on wheels,'' Ratliff said, explaining Hamilton was arrested for destruction of property and other petty crimes and eventually placed in a juvenile boot camp.
Owens, a former juvenile detention center guard, met the 6-foot-3 Hamilton while Hamilton was locked up. "He was her guardian angel,'' Ratliff said of the chance meeting that led Owens to her family. "Ira has helped me and helped her so much over the years,'' she said, noting Owens helped her clean out Hamilton's Greensboro apartment this week.
"And through this tragedy, he has been by my side every step of the way." Owens walked the tense steps with Ratliff into the Guilford County Courthouse on Wednesday for Reynolds' first appearance before a judge. According to Owens, Hamilton had dated Reynolds for two years and had first broken up with him about four months ago.
Despite her attempt to severe ties, "he kept bothering her with texts and would want to see her,'' Owens said. "The guards had to walk me out of the courtroom yesterday,'' Owens said, admitting his temper got the best of him during Reynolds' court appearance. Coping with her grief is particularly hard for Ratliff, she said.
"Because I had her at 14,'' she said. "We practically grew up together. She was more than a daughter, she was my best friend.
'' [email protected] (336) 349-4331, ext. 6140 @SpearSusie_RCN Get the latest in local public safety news with this weekly email.
{{description}} Email notifications are only sent once a day, and only if there are new matching items..
