Police identify Brooklyn Lindsey as 11th murdered trans woman in 2019
Brooklyn Lindsey was killed in the early hours of Tuesday morning. (Facebook)
A black trans woman who was murdered in Kansas City, Missouri, on Tuesday (June 25) has been identified as Brooklyn Lindsey.
Lindsey has become the 11th trans person confirmed to have been killed in the US this year, and according to the Human Rights Campaign every one has been a black trans woman.
According to local newspaper Kansas City Star, police said her body was found in the porch of an abandoned house at 6.30am, and may have been there for several hours.
Neighbours reportedly heard an argument at around 2.30am near the house, followed by multiple gunshots.
She had obvious signs of trauma to her face and it is being investigated as a homicide, but police have yet to determine a cause of death, the newspaper reported.
All 11 known trans people murdered in 2019 have been black trans women
Kris Wade, executive director of the Justice Project, told the Kansas City Star that the organisation had housed Lindsey in hotels when funds were available.
Lindsey reportedly struggled with homelessness and had lost her medicaid coverage and food stamps.
“She was just at survival level. She had nowhere to go,” Wade said.
If Lindsey’s death is ruled a murder, it will be the second killing of a transgender woman at the same intersection in the space of four years.
Tamara Dominguez was killed in the same place as Lindsey in 2015 after being repeatedly run over. Her killer was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
The Human Rights Campaign said in a statement on Lindsey’s death: “It is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of colour, and that the intersections of racism, transphobia, sexism, bi-phobia and homophobia conspire to deprive them of necessities to live and thrive.
“This epidemic of violence that disproportionately targets transgender people of colour — particularly Black transgender women — must cease.”
