Gunman kills young Black trans woman on city sidewalk while her friends flee

A 25-year-old Black transgender woman known as Redd was shot to death by an unknown male assailant in Chicago, Illinois around 1:30 a.m. on Sunday. Her family is now calling for her murder to be investigated as a hate crime, and she’s believed to be the 26th known trans or nonbinary person murdered this year, Advocate reported.

Her murderer walked past Redd and her group of friends who met on a street in the city’s west side on Sunday’s early hours, according to Redd’s friend, Michelle Lee. The man reportedly talked to a nearby group of women and returned half an hour later when he opened gunfire on Redd and her friends.

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As the group fled, Redd was shot multiple times in her back and legs and died on the sidewalk. The gunfire also hit a 34-year-old individual in the chest, and they were taken to the hospital with critical injuries. Redd’s friends rall eportedly began crying when they found her body.

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“She wanted to be loved and respected,” her friend Trevon Pope said. “That’s how she was. That’s one thing she didn’t play about. She loved and respected people.”

Redd’s family is now demanding that her murder be investigated as a hate crime.

“I do feel like it was a hate crime,” her cousin Mariyah Phillips told the Chicago Sun-Times. “I want to start [bringing] awareness [that] people are really attacking that community. I want people to know that they are being attacked.”

Hate crimes against gender identity have increased in recent years, according to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). While the DOJ recorded two gender identity-related hate crimes in 2020 and zero in 2021, that number rose to 9 in 2022 — a 350% increase from 2020.

The number of gender identity-related hate crimes may actually be higher as not all violence against trans and nonbinary individuals gets reported to police. Furthermore, police, the media and victims’ families sometimes misgender victims, essentially erasing their trans and nonbinary identities in the process.

According to the 2017-2022 Transgender Homicide Tracker, 73% of all confirmed homicides against Black trans women involved a gun.

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