US: Murdered Baltimore trans woman was ‘fun-loving, caring’
Tributes have been paid to a trans woman who was murdered last week in Baltimore.
Kandy Hall, 40, was found murdered in a field last Tuesday, but police are still yet to disclose the cause of death.
Derrick Smith, who says he grew up with Hall, told the Washington Blade that she was a hairdresser from Annapolis.
He said: “I was there with her at the beginning of the process before she transitioned and everything.
“I knew her as her little boy self and I knew her as Kandy.
“She was a very fun-loving, caring person. She just enjoyed life.
“She lived life to the fullest because I guess her mindset was tomorrow’s not promised to anybody so I’m not going to wait until tomorrow to do this if I can do it today.
Hall had been arrested twice in 2010 for prostitution, but Smith dismissed the assumption.
He said: “I get tired whenever a transgender person is murdered, [people] automatically connect it to prostitution.
“She could have just been walking across the field and there could have been a random hate crime.”
The police department held a special meeting with trans and LGB groups last week to address concerns, but some attendees raised concerns that there was a distinct pattern of anti-trans violence.
Carrie Evans of Equality Maryland said: “Because we do not know the motive behind Kandy’s death, the LGBT communities of Baltimore remain apprehensive and on guard.”
