Mother killed in domestic violence shooting honored at vigil

Friends and family gathered Wednesday to honor a single mother killed in a domestic violence shooting

A vigil was held at Norwood Community Park in Norwood for 20-year-old MaKayla Davis.

Friends and relatives released purple balloons while wearing purple shirts to spread awareness against domestic violence.

“She always wanted everybody to be positive and coming together,” said Alliyah Shabazz, a friend of Davis. “I think that was her goal.”

Officers said someone called 911 just before noon Thursday to say there were gunshots coming from a home on Carpenter Avenue in Albemarle.

Witnesses told police they heard arguing before the shooting.

Police arrived and found Davis dead at the home.

Channel 9′s Erika Jackson spoke with the victim’s mother Wednesday at the vigil in Norwood.

Kia Davis-West said she shows a video to her one-year-old grandson, Aidan, every night before bed.

“We still take out pictures and show it to him because he remembers her, and he just laughs, and he takes our phone or a tablet, and he kisses it,” Davis-West said.

She uses videos and photos to keep her daughter’s memory alive.

Officers arrested Davis’ ex-boyfriend, Byron Anthony Beckford Jr., who is Adrian’s father, on Sept. 15 in connection with the fatal shooting.

“He might have thought in that single moment he hurt one person, you see he hurt a village today because she touched all of us,” Davis-West said.

Davis-West hopes her family’s tragedy will inspire domestic violence survivors to speak up.

“There are some that are dealing with it now,” she said. “And so we need to come together and keep her memory alive.”

Domestic violence resources:

• TheHotline.org
• Safe Alliance
• NCCADV

This was Albemarle’s first homicide of 2023.

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