Police arrest man for murder of transgender woman Deeniquia Dodds

Illustrated rainbow pride flag on a white background.

A man has been arrested for the murder of transgender woman, Deeniquia Dodds.

The woman was shot on July the 4th in Washington, but died 9 days later in hospital.

Police arrest man for murder of transgender woman Deeniquia Dodds

22 year old Shareem Hall has been arrested for the shooting and charged with murder while armed. The police force are ‘seriously considering’ bringing hate crime charges against the defendant.

Police investigating the case believe the motive for the shooting was robbery. Dodds was shot just a few blocks away from her home.

According to interim police chief Peter Newsham, Hall did not know Dodds.

“Whenever we lose a life in our city, we take it personally,” Newsham said. “We want folks to know that we are going to continue to work to make sure we hold people responsible for this kind of violence on our streets.”

Dodds was part of the transgender advocacy organisation Casa Ruby. Ruby Corado, the founder and executive director of the group said to Mic: “Deeniquia was part of the Casa Ruby family, and she is gone, but not forgotten. Her death will not be in vain.”

Corado added, “Casa Ruby denounces the genocide of young trans women of colour. People in leadership need to address the employment barriers that keeps trans women of colour from accessing the resources they need to grow healthy and thrive.”

Friends and family of Dodds were worried about her safety because she turned to sex work. Joeann Lewis, an aunt who raised Dodds described her as a “beautiful person” who “loved to make you laugh. Loved to make you smile.”

Initial reports of Dodds death misgendered her and it wasn’t until two days after being shot in the neck that her trans identity was reported.

Dodds, who was killed in July, was the 15th transgender person killed in the US this year. Crystal Edmonds, who died early Friday morning in Baltimore was the 21st person this year, matching the number to the total number of transgender murders in 2015.

Comments (0)

MyPinkNews members are invited to comment on articles to discuss the content we publish, or debate issues more generally. Please familiarise yourself with our community guidelines to ensure that our community remains a safe and inclusive space for all.

Loading Comments