08/04/2026
Regarding the brutal murder of Susan Marie Gehrke:
Confirmed from Tucson Police Department reports, court records, and contemporaneous local reporting (KVOA, KOLD, Arizona Daily Star, and others)…
Susan Marie Gehrke, 61, of Tucson, Arizona, was assaulted on the evening of July 24, 2026, while on the patio of an apartment complex near Speedway Boulevard and Alvernon Way (address reported as approximately 1201 N. Alvernon Way).
She and an adult male companion - both of whom are White - were approached by a Black male who “became confrontational.”
What caused the Black male to “become confrontational?”
Susan Gehrke and a male companion were sitting on the apartment porch. For some odd reason, Tucson Police Department has chosen to suppress racial descriptions as well as the age of the male companion. We know from the photos / mug shot that Susan is a White woman and the murderer is a Black male who goes by the name of, “Dice.”
“Dice” walked past them toward an upstairs unit and began knocking on the door. Either Susan or the male companion called out to him to inform him that the resident was not home.
“Dice” responded by cursing and yelling insults as he came back down the stairs.
The male companion stepped off the porch to speak with him, likely attempting to calm the situation.
Instead, the Black male punched the man in the face, causing him to fall and strike his head. When Gehrke then moved to assist the fallen man, Jefferson punched her in the face.
The White male victim suffered serious head and facial injuries. When Susan Gehrke went to assist him, she was punched with sufficient force that part of her dentures broke and flew out.
Susan fell from the force of the blow, struck her head, knocking her unconscious. She suffered a brain bleed.
Susan was transported to a hospital with life-threatening injuries and died from those injuries on July 29, 2026.
The suspect was identified as 27-year-old Dahseir Edward Jefferson. He was located and arrested by Tucson Police on July 28, 2026, near Speedway and Country Club Road. He was initially booked on two counts of aggravated assault. After Gehrke’s death, the charges were amended to include second-degree murder. He is being held in the Pima County Adult Detention Complex on a $650,000 bond. 
Jefferson has a documented prior criminal record. In 2021 he was convicted of aggravated assault (with a victim bound or restrained) stemming from 2019 cases and sentenced to five years in Arizona prison; he was released in October 2024. He also has a prior burglary conviction.
Local reporting notes additional prior violent incidents, including a 2020 case involving an attack on a 13-year-old. 
Gehrke’s family described her as a two-time cancer survivor (breast and brain cancer referenced in some accounts), a loving mother and grandmother who was nearing retirement and whose birthday was August 3. They stated her injuries left her “unrecognizable” and called her “a beacon of light to everyone who knew her.”
A GoFundMe was established by the family.
https://www.gofundme.com/f/a-loving-farewell-for-susan-gehrke
Susan was murdered, and her friend severely injured. Another case in a long line of cases where White people have suffered “unprovoked attacks” by Black males.
In this case, either the Black male is so virulently hatefully racist towards White people that he will beat White people to death because one of his friends isn’t home to answer the door, or the Black male is so low-iq with little to no impulse control, that he would beat White people to death over an unanswered knock at the door.
We simply must stop living this way.
