Police consider if violent shooting of trans woman was a hate crime
Police will not rule out that the shooting of a trans woman may be a hate crime.
The 34-year-old woman was shot multiple times in Fresno early on Wednesday morning, police chief Jerry Dyer said.
Dyer says he has asked detectives to solve the case “very quickly”, reports the Fresno Bee.
Police found the victim on North Fourth Street after multiple gunshots were heard at 02:59.
The victim was found by officers four minutes after the shots were heard and was taken to the Community Regional Medical Center where she died 30 minutes later.
Dyer said the victim “appears to be transgender”, but that detectives have not found a motive.
He added that it was unclear whether the shooting was a hate crime but that the information gathered would consider that option.
The identity of the victim has not yet been released.
According to Dyer, officers believe that there was “some type of disturbance in the alleyway that … ultimately carried out into the street.”
The victim was found in a way which suggests she was running away from the shooter.
Dyer also said that officers believe that there was “one suspect involved, a male.”
Police are appealing for eyewitnesses in the crime and are surveying CCTV for clues on the perpetrator.
Earlier in May tributes were paid to the tenth trans woman to be killed in the US this year.
Chayviss ‘Chay’ Darice Reed was shot dead in April in Miami-Dade County, Florida, making her the ninth trans woman killed in 2017.
In Louisiana, Jaquarrius Holland, 18, Chyna Dupree, 31, and Ciara McElveen, 21, have been killed.
Tiara Richmond, 24, was murdered in Illinois, Mesha Caldwell, 41, died in Mississippi, Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow, 28, was killed in South Dakota, and Jojo Striker, 23, was shot dead in Ohio.
The most recent murder before Reed’s was of Alphonza Watson, 38, who was killed on March 22 in Baltimore, Maryland.
