Remembering Our Dead

Marquita Johnson

Marquita was shot three times in the face at close range by Juan Lamont Harding.

The sobbing and crying stilled when the preacher began to talk to those gathered for 17-year-old [deadname] L. Johnson's funeral.

"I wish I had a remedy that I could shake and this would all go away," the Rev. Sylvester Walker told the mourners at St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church on Wednesday. "But I don't have a remedy... I don't even have any answers."

Priends and family want to know why Johnson was killed, especially now that authorities say the man arrested Tuesday in the slaying had no apparent motive.

And the people who knew the victim say Johnson spent [her] short, sad life searching for the answer to one question: How can one live as a woman, trapped in a man's body?

"[They] wanted to be a boy, but It seemed like the part that wanted to be a girl just took over," an aunt, Margery Jones, said.

Now, despite earlier impressions about the case, authorities don't think Johnson's confused [gender] put [them] in danger the night he was killed.

Johnson was found by the curb in the 600 block of East Main Street about 3:25 a.m. Friday. Three 25-caliber bullets had been pumped into [her] head at close range, Officials say Johnson and Harding did not know each other.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/dayton-daily-news-murder-of-transgender/143280830/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10_JeZ7LEIRhvewTCoL5mVkH6MQJzf7fSXl4-P6QJ0v0/edit#gid=0

Report added: 17 Feb 2019. Last updated: 7 Mar 2026

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