POMPANO BEACH, Fla. — Carrying pink balloons and wearing T-shirts printed with the image of their loved one, roughly 100 people gathered Friday night to honor the life of Maurice Harrison — known to her followers as “Girlalala.”
Some held candles as they stood together, reflecting on the 21-year-old’s impact and the grief left behind.
“She loved the feeling of making people smile, making people happy,” said friend Jazzmann Lasane. “Everybody know who knows her, I would say they look up to her, they respect her.”
Harrison, affectionately called “Lala,” was a popular transgender social media influencer with hundreds of thousands of followers on TikTok and tens of thousands more on Instagram.
A familiar moment from her videos — “I’m the real Girlalala” — played among those gathered in her memory.
“Everybody is hurt,” Lasane said. “My heart goes out to her close friends, her parents — they lost two children in the past year. Her brother passed away last August.”
Harrison was killed one week ago, and detectives say the shooter was her boyfriend, 25-year-old Shanoyd White Jr. He has since been arrested and charged with first-degree murder with a firearm.
Part of the confrontation was captured on a nearby Tesla’s camera, showing a man investigators say is White walking around the vehicle with a gun. Detectives say White and Harrison had been arguing, and he shot her while she was still seated inside the car.
At the memorial, one woman urged those gathered to channel their grief into purpose.
“Don’t let this tragedy be in vain because the person who did it thought they was gonna erase him from this earth,” she said.
Loved ones say the service marks the beginning of continued efforts to honor Harrison’s life and legacy.
“It happened for a reason,” Lasane said. “And it’s something for us to learn from, and I know everyone who loves her is gonna do everything they can to keep her name alive.”
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