‘Nobody deserves it.’ Bradenton mother speaks out after daughter killed in triple homicide

Michael Moore Jr.
·6 min read

When Sacouya Starquez Jonquila Brice celebrated her 29th birthday at the Siesta Key Drum Circle, her family didn’t know it would be her last.

“We had a good time,” Brice’s mother, Matilda Dubois, said about the beach day.

Brice told her mother she had no birthday plans that morning, so Dubois invited her to Siesta Key. “I’m so glad we came out, you all really made my day,” Dubois remembers Brice telling her.

It’s one of the last conversations she would ever have with her daughter.

The next day, the sheriff’s office says Brice was one of three Manatee County women shot to death in a “killing spree.” Titimysha Scott, 48, and Charel Carter, 31, were also murdered, detectives say.

Investigators believe it was Sacouya’s own cousin, 28-year-old Javontee Brice, who killed all three women in Manatee County shootings that happened roughly within an hour of each other.

Family remembers ‘a good soul’ in triple murder

While the gunman’s motives are still unknown, Dubois said nothing can explain the tragedy that devastated her and her family. She called the violence “senseless” and said it happened “for no reason at all.”

“We had just celebrated her birthday and to have her gone the very next day,” Dubois said. “She didn’t deserve what happened to her. Nobody deserves it, but she didn’t deserve it.”

Brice, who family and friends affectionately called “Coco” or “Coyaa,” was “a good soul,” according to her mother. Dubois said she knows most mothers would say that about their children, but “Coco” really was a positive, uplifting person, Dubois said.

Sympathy flowers covered a table in the home of Matilda DuBois, the mother of shooting victim Sacouya Brice.
Sympathy flowers covered a table in the home of Matilda DuBois, the mother of shooting victim Sacouya Brice.

“No one hardly ever had a bad word to say about her. Whenever you saw her, she had a smile on her face. Even on her bad days, she had the biggest, prettiest smile,” Dubois said. “She was a great person. She was beautiful, inside and out.”

Brice was a “free spirit” who liked to sing, her mother said. Her favorite music was old-school R&B. She loved doing makeup, hair styling and eating.

A Bayshore High School graduate, Brice recently became a CNA and worked for a rehabilitation center in Bradenton. She hoped to get become an RN one day.

Her motivation? Her two sons: Troy, 9 and Tory, 8.

“She was a great mother. She’d do anything for her boys,” Dubois said.

Brice had five siblings. Dubois said she is close with all her children, but she had a unique relationship with Brice.

“Every day she’d call me. Sometimes 10 times a day,” Dubois said. “She was an old soul. Whatever I liked, she liked.”

Dubois was one of the last people to see Brice alive. Brice spent the morning of June 24 at the park with the family before going over to her mother’s house. They said their goodbyes, and a little over an hour later Dubois got a phone call from one of her daughter’s friends who said “Coco just got shot.”

Dubois drove to Palmetto as quickly as possible, praying the whole time it wasn’t true.

“But, sad to say, when I got there, it was her,” Dubois said.

Sacouya Brice, 29, died June 24 was shot dead by her cousin, Javontee Brice, after he went on a “killing spree,” the sheriff’s office said. Her mother describe her as “a beautiful person, inside and out.”
Sacouya Brice, 29, died June 24 was shot dead by her cousin, Javontee Brice, after he went on a “killing spree,” the sheriff’s office said. Her mother describe her as “a beautiful person, inside and out.”

Detectives say Sacouya was leaving a cookout in Palmetto when Javontee shot her as she was getting in her car.

Officers with the Palmetto Police Department attempted life-saving measures, but Sacouya died about an hour later, the sheriff’s office said.

Witnesses in all three shootings identified Javontee as the shooter. The sheriff’s office identified the victims as Sacouya, Javontee’s mother and an ex-girlfriend’s new partner.

Later that night, deputies with the Hamilton County Sheriff’s Office shot Javontee dead near the state line after he opened fire, according to the sheriff’s office.

Fundraisers for victims’ families

One of Sacouya’s children recently celebrated a birthday and the family planned to take a trip to Kissimmee. But instead of leaving for a summer vacation, the family is planning a funeral.

The kids, who also lost their father, Troy Thompskin, a few years ago after he died following a seizure, are left without parents, so the family set up a GoFundMe to help cover funeral costs and take care of the children.

“We have to pull together and be strong for them, especially,” Dubois said.

Sacouya Brice, 29, died June 24 was shot dead by her cousin, Javontee Brice, after he went on a “killing spree,” the sheriff’s office said. Her mother describe her as “a beautiful person, inside and out.”
Sacouya Brice, 29, died June 24 was shot dead by her cousin, Javontee Brice, after he went on a “killing spree,” the sheriff’s office said. Her mother describe her as “a beautiful person, inside and out.”

Javontee’s sister, Redd Johnson, took to Facebook to write about the tragedy.

Johnson wrote that she wanted to “deeply apologize to both” families, adding that the victims “did not deserve that and it really breaks my heart.”

Scott’s family also created a GoFundMe, which Johnson posted to Facebook.

“She was a beautiful soul whose life was taken away from her tragically on June 24th,” an organizer of the GoFundMe wrote.

Scott, who also went by the nickname “Pie,” left behind 12 children and seven grandchildren.

“All donations will go toward her kids,” the GoFundMe says.

‘A light in every room’

The third victim, Carter, also known as “Pigg,” was described by one Facebook user as “a light in every room you entered.”

“Your energy was larger than life. You will always be spoken highly of, therefore you will never be forgotten,” the person wrote.

Another, Katrina Ward, wrote in the guest book of Carter’s obituary that she “was such a wonderful young lady.” Ward said Carter was her administrative assistant for two years.

“Charel’s character was impeccable. Everyone in the office loved her and considered her as our daughter. I am so saddened by Charel’s death and am praying for her family. May God bless them and grant them strength, grace and love during this most devastating time,” Ward wrote.

Carter leaves behind her son, Karsyn, according to an obituary.

Visitation will be held for Carter on Saturday at Sarasota Potter’s House from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m., according to an obituary, with funeral services to be held directly after at 1 p.m. Burial will be held at Palms Memorial Park.

Visitation for Sacouya will be held on Friday at Westside Funeral Home in Palmetto from 6 to 8 p.m., according to an obituary. A celebration of life will be held for her on Saturday at Happy Gospel Church in Bradenton at 1 p.m.

Sacouya’s family held a vigil for her on June 28 in Palmetto.

For Dubois, what happened will never make sense. The pain of losing a daughter, she said, has been indescribable and something she would never wish on anyone.

“Her smile would brighten up anybody’s day,” Dubois said. “She had so much life in her still to live.”

Sacouya Brice, 29, died June 24 was shot dead by her cousin, Javontee Brice, after he went on a “killing spree,” the sheriff’s office said. Her mother describe her as “a beautiful person, inside and out.”
Sacouya Brice, 29, died June 24 was shot dead by her cousin, Javontee Brice, after he went on a “killing spree,” the sheriff’s office said. Her mother describe her as “a beautiful person, inside and out.”
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