Mary Caitrin "Caity" Mahoney, 24, a founder of the Baltimore Lesbian Avengers, died Sunday, July 6, 1997, at the Starbucks coffee shop on 1810 Wisconsin Avenue, NW, in Georgetown.

Mahoney, who was the night manager at Starbucks, and two other Starbucks employees died of gunshot wounds sometime after the shop closed at 8 p.m., according to D.C. police detective Tony Patterson. Patterson said police still have no suspect in the case. The bodies of Mahoney and her co-workers were discovered early Monday morning, July 7, by an employee who was to open the store.

Mahoney was one of a core group of six women who founded the Baltimore Lesbian Avengers, a political activist group, in February 1995, according to her best friend, Mary Hall of Baltimore, Md.

"She was very passionate about everything she did, and she did everything the best she could," Hall said.

The Lesbian Avengers have a tradition of eating fire as a stunt at their actions. Hall said that once the Avengers were having a picnic at the house where she lived with Mahoney when they decided to do fire-eating for fun. Hall said Mahoney wanted to impress her girlfriend.

"She decided to show off and do two torches at once and she ended up burning her lips," Hall said.

"But she was a Leo," Hall said. "She was in her element when she ate fire."

Mahoney’s activism spanned many arenas, including founding a women’s issues discussion group at Towson State University in 1993; sitting as a board member of the 31st Street Bookstore in Baltimore, a Lesbian/feminist cooperative; and working on Bill Clinton’s presidential campaign as well as interning for the Clinton White House when he was newly elected.

In 1994, Mahoney and others raised more than $1,000 for Baltimore’s Pride festival while participating in a musical spoof of The Sound of Music known as The Camp of Music. In the musical, Mahoney played Gretel -- the youngest of the "VonCamp" children.

"Her passion was contagious, she was just amazing," Hall said.

Mahoney was born July 22, 1972, in Baltimore. From the sixth grade on, she attended the McDonogh School near Pikesville, Md., where she graduated in 1991. She did a year of studies at Ithaca College in New York state, a semester at Fordham University in New York City, and then two years at Towson State University in Maryland, where she received a bachelor’s degree in women’s studies in the spring of 1995.

While studying at Towson, Mahoney worked as a shift supervisor at Cafe Diana, a Baltimore Lesbian/feminist coffee house from September 1993 to June 1995. During the summer of 1995, she worked as a cook at the City Cafe, a Gay-owned coffee house in Baltimore.

In September 1995, Mahoney moved to Washington, D.C., and took a job with Starbucks.

Mahoney’s hobbies and interests included her cat, Marlu; Lesbian and women’s rights; politics; and jogging.

"She was a wonderful person and lots of people miss her," Hall said. "She was such a sweet, kind, and generous person."

In addition to Hall, Mahoney is survived by her mother and stepfather, Mary Belle Annenberg and Barnet Annenberg, both of Baltimore; father and stepmother, Patrick Mahoney Sr. and Ginny Mahoney, both of Towson; sister, Molly Mahoney of Baltimore; brother and sister-in-law, Patrick and Lelah Mahoney of Baltimore; three stepsisters, Stacy Wenzl, Missy Gray, and Toni Hamilton, all of Baltimore; grandmother, Elizabeth H. Mahoney of Annapolis, Md.; and grandmother, Maria W. Simms of Ardmore, Pa.

She is also survived by several friends, including Beth Kuhns, Sally Franklin, Amanda Joyce, and Dawn Heddrick, all of Baltimore; as well as a number of friends she worked with at Starbucks.

Her remains were cremated.