Police hunt suspects after trans woman is beaten and shot dead
Police are seeking answers after trans woman Keisha Jenkins was shot and killed yesterday.
22-year-old Ms Jenkins was shot and killed at around in the early hours of Tuesday (October 6) after she was dropped off by an unknown driver.
After leaving the vehicle, Ms Jenkins was approached and attacked by a group of around five men who beat her to the ground.
One of the men then fired two shots into her back, before the group fled the scene.
She was taken to hospital but was later declared dead.
However, police say that there is still not enough evidence to declare the killing a hate crime.
They say it is too early to say whether Jenkins was attacked because she was trans or whether there was another motive involved.
“We’ll talk to more people, and then we’ll get to the bottom of it,” Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark told CBS Philly.
“When the autopsy results come back, different things, and we’ll put everything together and then from that we’ll see if it’s classified as a hate crime or not.”
Police are seeking the public’s help in trying to identify Jenkins’ attackers – plus the man who shot and killed her.
They also want to identify the driver of the car that dropped her off.
Police are seeking the public’s help in trying to identify Jenkins’ attackers – plus the man who shot and killed her.
They also want to identify the driver of the car that dropped her off.
Ms Jenkins is the twentieth trans woman to have been murdered in the United States this year alone – sixteen of whom were trans women of colour – leading activists to describe the the situation as “an epidemic of anti-trans violence”.
“We in the transgender community right now are reeling,” actress Laverne Cox said.
Voicing her concern over the growing number of trans related crimes, she declared: “It really is a state of emergency.
“Your life should not be in danger simply for being who you are,” she added.
President Barack Obama has promised to put race-related murders and hate crimes at the forefront of his agenda, after being urged to investigate the worrying increase in trans-related killings.
