US: Trans woman burned to death in Florida
A trans woman has been found burned to death behind a dumpster in Fort Myers, Florida.
The woman has been identified as Yazmin Shancez, 31, though initial police report misgendered her and referred to her by her birth name.
Her burnt remains were discovered behind a bin at a rental facility on Thursday morning.
Fort Myers Police spokesperson Jay Rodriguez said the homicide is not being investigated as a hate crime.
He said: “This is a very active investigation and our investigators are aggressively working all leads and tips in order to solve this crime.
“We have no indication at this time to say this was specifically done because it was a male living as a female or anything like that.
“If you really think about it, a hate crime is killing someone for a specific reason, being black, Hispanic, gay. We’re investigating as we would any other homicide.”
GLAAD spokesman Ross Murray said: “No one deserves to be violently murdered and set on fire and put behind a dumpster.”
“I think that transgender people are still marginalized and stigmatized in our society.
“We tend to talk about transgender people in a way that discounts their experience and makes them a butt of a joke or deviant or suspicious and doesn’t take [their] whole life into account.”
A vigil will be held for Shancez later today.
Earlier this month, trans woman Kandy Hall was found murdered in Baltimore.
Anyone with information about the killing should contact Fort Myers Police Department, on 239-321-7700.
