Transgender Prostitute May Have Feared Police: Friend

By Deb Belt and Elizabeth Janney

A person the FBI has identified as the suspect killed in a shootout at the gates to the National Security Agency was reportedly a Baltimore sex worker who identified as a woman, went by the name Mya, and had a criminal record for prostitution and robbery.

Ricky Shawatza Hall, 27, of the 2200 block of North Charles Street in Baltimore City, died Monday at the entrance to the NSA campus after a shootout with guards, according to the FBI.

A friend of Hall’s, Tyelil Ishway, told The Baltimore Sun that Hall was estranged from family members, and had been staying with other people in the transgender community or various motels.

An advocate for transgender women in Baltimore told the Sun he wondered whether police used excessive force when they shot at Hall and her companion, identified as Kevin Fleming, 20. James Burrell Jr., of Women Accepting Responsibility, said Hall may have panicked because she was driving a stolen vehicle, but didn’t intend to hurt officers.

SEE ALSO:

• Cross-Dressers Stole Vehicle from Elkridge Motel Before NSA Showdown
• Drinking, Drug Use Preceded NSA Shootout
• Men Disguised as Women in Deadly Shootout at NSA Gate

Monday morning Hall drove a stolen Ford SUV to the NSA gate before 9 a.m. and “failed to obey an NSA Police officer’s routine instructions for safely exiting the secure campus,” the FBI said in a statement.

Instead, the SUV accelerated toward an NSA police vehicle, officers fired and Hall was pronounced dead at the scene, the FBI said. Fleming and an NSA officer were injured in the fracas.

Hall may have taken the exit for the NSA by mistake while driving on the Baltimore-Washington Parkway/MD 295, which happens “all the time” to those who don’t travel that way often and misread the brown sign, according to The Capital. Before turning around, drivers must proceed to the heavily guarded security checkpoint.

While the FBI reported Tuesday that a motive for the fatal encounter was unknown, terrorism was not suspected in the confrontation at the site of the intelligence-gathering agency.

From 2007 to 2011, Hall was charged with prostitution three times, The Daily Beast reported.

Authorities say Hall and Fleming had stolen the vehicle from a man who drove them from Baltimore to the Terrace Motel in Elkridge. The 60-year-old man had earlier picked up Hall and Fleming, who he didn’t know, in Baltimore and drove to the Terrace Motel on U.S. 1, the Sun reports.

Hall’s passenger, Fleming, was hospitalized with critical injuries as a result of the standoff at the NSA gate, according to ABC News.

An NSA police officer was treated and released from an area hospital Monday as well, the FBI reported.

Federal officials are continuing to investigate the incident, which was the second time a civilian has opened fire at the Fort Meade campus, where the NSA is located, this month. A former corrections officer who has since been linked to multiple shots fired incidents allegedly shot an NSA building at Fort Meade on March 3.

»Screenshot of Ricky Shawatza Hall from WBAL TV

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