Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-McCray built a life around performance, community, and showing up for others.
A beloved drag performer, Sanchez-McCray was a fixture in LGBTQ+ communities across Virginia and North Carolina, with a long history in the pageant world. Sanchez-McCray won Miss Mayflower EOY in 2015 and Miss Charlotte FFI-at-Large in 2020. Beyond the stage, Sanchez-McCray was deeply committed to community work, including through Nationz Foundation programs supporting marginalized communities.
Sanchez-McCray also spoke out against racism within LGBTQ+ spaces, joining a 2023 boycott of a Charlotte gay bar after Black patrons reported discriminatory treatment.
Sanchez-McCray had an expansive identity and was known by the names Saamel and Mable.
On March 13, Sanchez-McCray was shot and killed in Petersburg, Virginia, at age 42. In the days after, friends shared an old message that captured the care Shyyell extended to others: “I love you and [am] proud of you…. Always remain true to who you are.”
