Black Transgender Woman, Kiesha Jenkins, Assaulted and Fatally Shot in Philadelphia

22-year-old Kiesha Jenkins was beaten and fatally shot in Philadelphia on Tuesday. She is the 18th transgender woman of color killed in the United States this year and the second transgender woman of color killed in Philly in the last five months.


According to ABC 6, police say Jenkins was being dropped off in a car moments before the attack in the Logan neighborhood of the city. Five or six men then attacked Jenkins close to a children's playground. One of the men shot her twice in the back while she was on the ground.
"Right now we don't have any motive. We don't know if it's potentially a hate crime, if it was a robbery, we really don't know; it's too early in the investigation to tell," Philadelphia Police Captain James Clark told ABC 6.

"These murders are happening in incredibly violent situations to a very small population, over and over again, from one coast to the next." Helen Fitzpatrick, director of LGBT affairs in the Philadelphia mayor’s office told Buzzed News. "We just continuously see this violence go by in the media, and it hits close to home far too often, but it is throughout the entire nation."
Police are searching the area for surveillance video and are still looking for the men involved in the attack.

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