Trans woman murdered in Baltimore is 21st this year
A transgender woman in Baltimore has become the the 21st trans person to be murdered in 2016.
Crystal Edmonds was found on a sidewalk by police at 3 a.m on Friday morning. She was taken to hospital but died a few hours later at 11 a.m.
The 32 year old black trans woman was bleeding from a gunshot wound in the back of her head when she was found by police in the northwest of Baltimore city.
Her death is being treated as a homicide.
Crystal’s death brings the number of transgender murders in the US to 21, the same number recorded for the whole of 2015.
Trans woman of colour make up the majority of trans people who have been murdered. The group is especially vulnerable. However, the Chief of Baltimore police media relations, T.J. Smith, has said they cannot be sure if her transgender status played a role in the attack.
This approach to transgender murder is skewing the real figure of crime. Often, trans people are misgendered by news outlets and police departments meaning the real number of murders of transgender people could be much higher.
T.J. Smith said police have generated no suspects and very few leads.
“The kind of person who can do this, who can shoot someone in the back of the head and leave them for dead on a sidewalk, this type of person will do it again,” Smith said.
“At this time, we don’t know if that played a role, if she was targeted because she was transgender. We don’t have the evidence yet,” he added.
A reward of up to $2,000 is being offered for information that leads to an arrest and indictment.
Anyone with information is asked to call Baltimore police at 410-396-2100, Metro Crime Stoppers at (866) 756-2587, or submit tips online at MetroCrimeStoppers.org.
