Jacksonville transgender community fearful after third trans woman shot this year
This attack is the only one of the three to not end fatally
The transgender community of Jacksonville, Florida, is reeling after the shooting of a trans women, marking the third such incident in the city so far this year.
The latest victim, who has not been named due to her assailant still being at large, survived multiple gunshot wounds on the city’s West 29th Street, The Florida Times-Union reports.
The attack comes only a week after Antash’a English’s fatal shooting in Jacksonville. Another trans woman, Celine Walker, was murdered in a city motel room February.
While the latest victim has not been identified, both English and Walker were African-American. Jacksonville Transgender Awareness Project director Paige Mahogany Parks said that these shootings have terrified the community, particularly trans women of color.
“A lot of those girls live in these neighborhoods and they are scared to go out,” said Parks. “The African-American transgender community feels like we have a target on our backs.”
Jacksonville authorities haven’t announced any arrests or released possible motives for any of the killings, something that Parks finds troubling.
“It all falls in the hands of JSO,” Parks said of the Sheriff’s Office. “They are sitting on these cases.”
She also said that the police need to “step up their game” to protect the Jacksonville trans community.
The deaths in Jacksonville are among at least 12 American transgender people killed so far this year. Last year, 27 transgender people were murdered, the highest on record. A majority of the homicide victims have been trans women of color.
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