This story is part of The Dallas Morning News’ homicide project focused on sharing the stories of all people killed in Dallas in 2024.
The back of Antrquwia Williams’ royal blue T-shirt is emblazoned with a large photo of a happy mother and her smiling adult daughters at a local blues festival.
The tunes were soulful and the dancing hot that spring evening at the Culwell Center in Garland. In the thick of it were the Williams women — mom Delores and her trio of girls, Shantay, Antrquwia and Unetria, known to everyone as Mesha.
In the photo, taken during a performance break, Mesha cuddled her head on Delores’ shoulder, Antrquwia leaned in from the other side. Even though camera-shy Shantay declined to be in the photo, it is a reminder of one of the best times the Williams sisters and their mother shared in recent years.
That’s why Delores, Shantay and Antrquwia selected the image to adorn the memorial T-shirt honoring 47-year-old Mesha, the baby of the family who was shot and killed July 5 in a Lake Highlands apartment.
On the back, above the concert photo, are the words, “I’ll mourn you till I join you.”
Three generations of the Williams family, several wearing the memorial T-shirts, gathered in Delores’ living room on a recent Thursday to talk about their lost loved one.
Mesha was adventurous and fun to be around. No matter where she went, she made sure she dressed up. “She’d have her jewelry on, smelling good,” Jimesha, Mesha’s 22-year-old daughter, said.
After a long pause, Delores fought through her tears and said, “We all have our bad days, but hers were mostly good.”
Delores raised her girls in Garland, where Mesha attended Garland High School. After graduation, she spent more than 20 years as a certified nursing assistant, including at the Rehabilitation and Wellness Center of Dallas. “She was a hard worker,” Delores said. “She was especially good with elderly patients.”
In addition to her daughter, Mesha raised two sons, Daetreen and Jimmy. She was Gigi to her three young grandchildren. Jimesha most loved how much her mother laughed and joked. “Even if her jokes and stories were bad, you still laughed,” she said.
One of the stories Mesha and Antrquwia regularly told involved a maddening bike ride to Garland’s Central Park pool when they were 10 and 11.
“Mesha sat on the back of the bike and I pumped her all the way from my grandparents’ house,” Antrquwia recalled. When they arrived, they realized the younger sister, who planned to change clothes at the pool, had dropped her bathing suit top along the way.
Antrquwia was furious, but she searched with Mesha until they found it near their grandparents’ home. The story behind that lost morning of swimming eventually turned into one of the sisters’ funniest memories.
On July 4, the day before Mesha died, she FaceTimed with her mother for more than an hour. They talked about simple things: Despite it being a holiday, Delores planned to stay out of the heat and watch Hallmark movies. Mesha had a chicken baking in the oven and needed to be at work at 2 p.m. She hoped to find something fun to do with a girlfriend after her shift ended late that night.
Before Mesha hung up, she said, “Mama, you know I love you.”
“I know and I love you, too,” Delores responded.
Delores caught herself crying on and off all that day. “I didn’t know why. I kept asking, God, why am I in so much fear today?”
Delores shared her sorrow the next morning with her two sisters on their regular three-way phone call. As they talked, her phone began buzzing with calls from Mesha’s oldest son.
Daetreen had heard a shooting occurred at the apartment complex that was home to 40-year-old DeMarcus Gates, whom Mesha had been involved with off and on for a decade.
According to an arrest affidavit, Mesha and Gates, both holding guns, were arguing at the apartment before several gunshots were fired. A woman who identified herself as Gates’ girlfriend persuaded him to come out of his apartment, according to the police narrative. Officers found Mesha dead inside with multiple gunshot wounds, and Gates was arrested on a murder charge.
About six weeks after Mesha’s death, a Dallas County grand jury declined to indict Gates and he was released from jail. Grand juries are empaneled in secret to review the work of investigators and prosecutors and decide whether there is sufficient evidence to merit a trial on criminal charges.
The Williams family maintains Mesha was a victim of domestic violence. They are outraged the grand jury no-billed the case and don’t believe Mesha’s killing was thoroughly investigated.
“My sister deserves justice,” Antrquwia said, “but we don’t have the money to pay for a lawyer.”
Jimesha jumped in: “I’m so empty, so broken. I’m angry at everything. I’m hurt but I’m so mad.”
The weekend before Mesha died, she and Antrquwia had attended a family reunion in College Station. Every detail of the trip — sharing a room, eating breakfast together, shopping and trading stories — is precious to Antrquwia.
She said their relationship was typical of sisters. Some days they got along. Other days they didn’t.
“That weekend though we enjoyed each other’s presence so much,” Antrquwia said before bowing her head and bringing her hands palm to palm.
“God is in control,” she prayed. “Whatever is meant to happen after Mesha’s death — and bringing justice — will happen.”