Photo: Green County, Missouri Department of Public Safety
Springfield, Missouri police have arrested Charles Nelson, 28, in the shooting death of Dominique Lucious, a Black transgender woman he met on a dating app, reported Ozarks Independent.
Court documents obtained by Ozarks Independent show police received a 911 call at 6:51 a.m. on April 8 notifying them of a shooting at an apartment with one victim. Upon arrival, officers found Dominique Lucious, 26, dead.
According to a witness, who was in the apartment at the time of the shooting, Lucious had spent the previous night at the apartment. In the morning, she woke up and asked to use his bathroom to “freshen up because [she] was expecting someone to stop by the apartment.”
The witness then went back to sleep after Lucious used the bathroom and was awakened by the gunshots.
The witness said he walked into the living room and saw a “Black or Hispanic male” standing over Lucious, who was lying dead on the couch. The shooter then ordered the witness not to look at him before fleeing the scene. The witness, however, was able to get a picture of the shooter’s car, a black vehicle.
A next-door neighbor confirmed seeing a black vehicle flee from the direction of the apartment.
Police found texts from Nelson on Lucious’s phone and learned that he owned a 2004 black Ford Focus. In one text, police observed Lucious “giving the address of 905 N. Main Ave and asking how much of a controlled substance could be received for an apparent sexual act,” according to the court documents.
They also learned the two were communicating through the dating app, “Plenty of Fish.”
When Nelson was apprehended, he said he “talked to a lady on Plenty of Fish,” but that it was a “heavyset white female” whose name he did not provide. When confronted with the evidence the police had connecting Nelson to Lucious, he asked for legal counsel.
Nelson has been charged with second-degree murder and is being held without bond. He is due in court on May 3.
The Human Rights Campaign has identified Lucious’s death as “at least” the 14th violent killing of a transgender or nonbinary person in 2021. They use the phrase “at least” due to underreporting or misunderstanding of the trans community by police when reporting these crimes.
Lucious’s cousin Ciara Williams told KY3 that the family was taking the death extremely hard, especially after learning Nelson may have killed her because she was transgender.
“It’s really hard, you know. Because I feel like whatever the case may have been, they didn’t have to kill Dominique,” Williams said.