A lesbian in her 20s was brutally murdered last week in Washington DC.
Kerrice Lewis, 23, was shot and locked in the boot of a car before it was set on fire, police have said.
On 28 December, police responded to reports of gunfire on Adrian Street and at around 7.30pm found a vehicle on fire.
After the fire was extinguished, officers found the woman with gunshot wounds, unconscious.
Once emergency services arrived they found “no signs consistent with life.”
According to neighbours, multiple gunshots were heard before the fire was seen.
Lewis was heard screaming as she tried to escape from the car boot, according to reports.
The victim was orphaned when she was 11 and was raised by her grandparents.
Speaking to Huffington Post, her grandfather William Sharp said “her mother died of a brain aneurysm and her father was tragically murdered up in the D.C. area.”
He says she struggled with the loss of her parents and had served time in jail.
But Sharp said she tried to turn her life around and she was “very excited because she had just finished taking some classes and was looking forward to taking some more.”
Sharp said Lewis was a “free spirit” and “full of life”.
He said “she would light up a room, just talking and laughing.”
An ex-girlfriend of the victim and her best friend, Mercedes Rouhlac, said she “talked to her everyday.”
When she was uncontactable, she said she “just kept calling her”.
Friends who knew Lewis said people who knew her were “broken”.
Police currently have no motive or suspect in the killing.
