In 2017, Tarena Williams, a transgender woman from Norfolk, was shot in the chest by a man she met on a dating app. She was staying in a Ramada Inn in Norfolk while preparing to move into a new home when she invited the man over.
Shortly after arriving, the man pulled out a gun and began making sexual demands, Williams said. After fighting with him, she managed to push the man out the front door and this was when he turned and shot her.
The bullet passed inches from her heart and permanently damaged nerves in her arm. She still cannot use her left hand. During her long recovery process she said she found strength from the people around her and she became determined to give back to the community in some way. “[The shooting] just kind of