Man charged with fatally shooting Philadelphia trans woman Mia Green in broad daylight
Police allege that Green was killed following an altercation with the man whose car she was riding in
A North Philadelphia man has been arrested for allegedly shooting a transgender woman in his vehicle in broad daylight following an altercation earlier this week.
Philadelphia police first discovered 29-year-old Mia Green suffering from a gunshot wound after they stopped 38-year-old Abdullah Ibn El-Amin Jaamia for running a stop sign on Monday at around 8:10 a.m.
El-Amin Jaamia jumped out of his Jeep, claiming his passenger had been shot, and claimed to be taking Green to the hospital.
Officers saw Green suffering from a gunshot wound to her neck, and followed El-Amin Jaamia as he drove her to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. Green was pronounced dead within a half-hour of arriving at the hospital.
Police took El-Amin Jaamia to their headquarters for questioning, but were perplexed by what they saw as inconsistencies in his story, Homicide Capt. Jason Smith told the Philadelphia Inquirer.
“His initial story made absolutely no sense to us, which raised our suspicions,” Smith said. He did not provide details of El-Amin Jaamia’s account, but said he later confessed to shooting Green.
El-Amin Jaamia was charged and ultimately arraigned on charges of murder, possession of an instrument of crime, obstructing justice, and tampering with evidence. He has been denied bail, and will remain in prison until he goes to trial.
While Smith declined to elaborate on the relationship between El-Amin Jaamia and Green, he claimed that the two had fought, at which point El-Amin Jaamia allegedly grabbed a gun lodged between the driver’s seat and center console, and fired three times. Green was hit once in the neck, once in the left arm, and was grazed by a third bullet on her left side.
Police are still searching for the .22-caliber revolver used in the shooting. It was not recovered from the Jeep or El-Amin Jaamia’s person, according to USA Today. El-Amin Jaamia, who also has an address in Upper Darby, Pa., has a permit to carry a gun from Delaware County, police say.
Philadelphia’s Office of LGBT Affairs released a statement on Green’s death, calling her loss “especially painful.”
“This latest act of violence against a member of our community is a somber reminder of the epidemic of violence against trans individuals,” the statement read. “It is a crisis that cannot be allowed to persist any further. The countless painful losses experienced during this year alone — especially within our transgender communities of color — remind us that there is much work to be done in the pursuit of full equality, respect, and justice for us all.”
See also: Woman charged as part of mob attack against Philadelphia transgender woman
Green is one of at least 30 transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals who have been killed in the United States this year, surpassing the total number killed in 2019.
Deja Lynn Alvarez, a transgender advocate, posted news of Green’s murder on her Facebook page, claiming that Green and El-Amin Jaamia had been in an intimate relationship — information she told USA Today she obtained from people in Philadelphia’s LGBTQ community who knew Green.
“For all of the folks that see this I want to make sure that it is very clear this young lady was not murdered by someone who did not know her or by someone who did not know that she was transgender,” Alvarez wrote. “She was murdered by someone that she had a long intimate relationship with which is more often than not the case! STOP BLAMING TRANS PEOPLE FOR THEIR OWN MURDERS!”
Tori Cooper, the director of community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative of the Human Rights Campaign, said it is not uncommon to see transgender individuals killed by someone close to them.
“Too often, we see a mix of toxic masculinity, misogyny, racism and transphobia play a strong factor in the deaths of Black trans women like Mia,” she said in a statement.
Support Metro Weekly’s Journalism
These are challenging times for news organizations. And yet it’s crucial we stay active and provide vital resources and information to both our local readers and the world. So won’t you please take a moment and consider supporting Metro Weekly with a membership? For as little as $5 a month, you can help ensure Metro Weekly magazine and MetroWeekly.com remain free, viable resources as we provide the best, most diverse, culturally-resonant LGBTQ coverage in both the D.C. region and around the world. Memberships come with exclusive perks and discounts, your own personal digital delivery of each week’s magazine (and an archive), access to our Member's Lounge when it launches this fall, and exclusive members-only items like Metro Weekly Membership Mugs and Tote Bags! Check out all our membership levels here and please join us today!
You must be logged in to post a comment.