A 21-year-old woman was shot and killed inside her Queens apartment after being chased into the residence by an unidentified gunman, according to police, as reported by The New York Post.
The victim, identified as Dashanna Donovan, was found with a fatal gunshot wound to the head around 9:30 p.m. Friday. Officers responded to a call of an assault at a residence near 96th Street and 31st Avenue in East Elmhurst, the NYPD said.
BREAKING | Woman Fatally Shot in Home
Dashanna Donovan, 21, was shot in the head and killed inside her residence in Queens. No arrests have been made as detectives review surveillance footage. Stay informed and #ProtectTheWorld with Citizen pic.twitter.com/ghKeIuXD2j— Citizen NYC (@CitizenAppNYC) September 13, 2025
Investigators discovered multiple shell casings inside the apartment, and several rounds had pierced the walls. Police sources said surveillance video captured the suspect pursuing Donovan into the building while holding a firearm.
No arrests have been made, and authorities have not confirmed the relationship between Donovan and the shooter. Her mother, Helena Hypolite, told the New York Post that she believed her daughter knew the assailant.
“I heard she saw the person and she ran so it’s definitely someone she knew,” she said. “Who? We don’t know. It’s definitely a mystery.”
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Neighbors said the sound of the shooting startled residents on the block. “We were sitting outside enjoying the last of the summer,” one man told the Post.
“I heard three shots — pop, pop, pop — one after the other. It was coming from around the back. I didn’t see anything, I just heard it. We were scared. We ran inside because we didn’t know what was happening.”
Hypolite described her daughter as a vibrant young woman who was born in St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands. She said Donovan enjoyed dancing and would only eat her mother’s chicken curry.
“Her smile,” Hypolite said, when asked what she would miss most. “It just brightened up the room. She was always funny, she liked to crack jokes.”
The grieving mother also pleaded for an end to the violence. “The scripture says quick to listen, slow to speak, slow to anger,” she said. “Some people are ignorant. They let their anger get the better of them.”
She urged the gunman to surrender. “I feel like he should turn himself in,” she said. “I don’t understand how he slept last night because I wasn’t able to sleep.”
The NYPD said the investigation is ongoing.
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