Sha’Nee Lauren Dougherty, our middle daughter, became a victim of gun violence in the early hours of August 18, 2008 at the age of 17. As she ended the summer in her old neighborhood of 22nd Street, SE, she was visiting friends and enjoying the last hours of summer before preparing to attend college. A high school graduate of only a few weeks, Sha’Nee was full of life and ready for the next phase in her future.
Losing Sha’Nee so unexpectedly to gun violence has been a life altering event for our family. We had experienced the loss of her mother 7 months previous to her death and visiting her former neighborhood brought comfort and joy to Sha’Nee. It helped her with coping with the grief of losing her mother and leaving a community and friends who rallied around her mother during her long illness.
Sha’Nee loved fashion and would often make her own style of fashion by spray painting shoes, adding patches to shirts and dresses, and adorning her love of colorful outfits with eye catching accessories. She always wore a bright smile and was a devoted and loving daughter, sister, neice, granddaughter, cousin, and friend. A teacher from Booker T. Washington Public Charter School called her a “ray of sunshine” and painted a mural of sunrays over the school library entrance.
Although her life ended on August 18, 2008, her memory lives on in our hearts and in the educational endeavors of DC’s college bound students. Thru generous donations a memorial scholarship fund was created in her memory thru Quality Trust for Individuals with Disabilities and a scholarship competition was launched in 2010.
Forget Me Not, Washington, DC’s 119th homocide victim, Sha’Nee Lauren Dougherty. Forget me not, for I am there, In the beat of your heart, On the wing of your prayer.
I lit a candle in behalf of all violent crime victims and especially my nephew Rodney Poinsdexter who to this day we have no idea what happened to him since 2007.