Trans woman shot dead in Florida is 20th trans person to be killed this year in US
A transgender woman of colour has been found shot dead in Charlotte County, Florida.
Londonn Moore is believed to be the 20th trans person to be killed so far this year in the US.
Moore, 20, was shot multiple times near Sawyer Circle in North Port early on Saturday morning (September 8).
Local media have reported on Moore’s death, with some outlets referring to the woman by the name she was given at birth (commonly known as ‘deadnaming’).
Police are reportedly treating Moore’s death as murder. However, it is not yet clear if they are investigating it as a hate crime.
The overwhelming majority of known trans murder victims in the US this year have been trans women of colour.
Police are reportedly treating Moore’s death as murder. (Londonn Moore/Facebook)
“When it comes to murder, murder is murder,” North Port Police Department officer Joshua Taylor told NBC. “Whether it’s a hate crime or not, you’re going to pay that price.”
Just a week before her death, Moore had posted on Facebook: “Ima give this whole love thing one more chance. Wish me luck.”
On Facebook, a woman called Pamela Kinard, who claimed to be Moore’s mother, appeared to misgender her daughter and deny that she was transgender.
Moore’s death comes just over a week after another trans woman of colour, Shantee Tucker, was found shot dead in Philadelphia.
Tucker, who had celebrated her 30th birthday on September 2, was found with a gunshot wound by police at about 1am on a highway in the Hunting Park area of the city, according to local media reports.
She was taken to Temple University Hospital, where she was pronounced dead. Police are reportedly looking for a suspect in connection with the murder.
At the time of Tucker’s death, the Human Rights Campaign reported that 16 of the 19 known killings of trans people in the US in 2018 have been women of colour.
Shantee Tucker was found dead on September 5. (Shantee Tucker/Facebook)
On August 30, two more black trans women were found dead on the same day.
Dejanay L. Stanton, a 24-year-old woman, was found on a street in Chicago on Thursday morning with a gunshot wound to the head, the Chicago Sun-Times reported.
The other woman, 18-year-old Vontashia Bell, was found in a street in Shreveport, Louisiana, with gunshot wounds to the chest and wrist.
Sarah McBride, national press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign, recently told PinkNews: “There is a growing epidemic of violence targeting transgender people, particularly Black transgender women.
“This is an urgent crisis that is a by-product of the toxic and violent combination of transphobia, misogyny, and racism. As a society, our policymakers and lawmakers must do more to combat this violence.”
