BART police apprehended a man they witnessed attempting to evade fare at El Cerrito del Norte Station Tuesday, only to discover he was an escaped murder convict from Georgia who had been on the run for the past two years.

Bay Area Rapid Transit Police officers tried to stop 27-year-old Davonte Fore after they saw him attempting to enter the El Cerrito del Norte Station without paying fare around 8:53 am Tuesday, according to a news release. Fore took off on foot but was caught several blocks away. After initially giving officers a false name, a fingerprint check identified him as a Georgia fugitive who had been on the run since 2024 after disappearing during his murder trial.

Fore was convicted in absentia in October 2024 of the 2021 murder of 25-year-old Skyler Gilmore, a Black transgender woman, and later sentenced to life with the possibility of parole, plus 15 years, as the Chronicle reports. Prosecutors reportedly said Fore and co-defendant JaQuan Brooks, whom they identified as gang members, tracked Gilmore through calls and text messages before fatally shooting her inside her apartment. Authorities said the killing was ordered after it was discovered Gilmore was involved with a member of a rival gang.

According to Atlanta’s 11Alive, Fore was initially arrested in November 2022 then released on bond in February 2024 despite prosecutors' objections.

“This is why our office works hard to get bonds denied in cases like this,” Jacques Spencer, lead investigator with the local district attorney’s office, said at the time,” per Fox 5 Atlanta, “but it's not our decision to grant bond.”

Fore is currently in custody at the Contra Costa County Jail and will soon be extradited back to Georgia, as CBS Atlanta reports.

In 2024, the Human Rights Campaign added Gilmore to its registry of transgender people killed by violence.

“Gilmore’s death was initially uncounted by HRC due to the lack of reporting that takes place when a transgender person, especially a transgender woman of color, is killed,” says the HRC. “Far too often these deaths go unreported, or misreported.”

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