Transgender woman who was shot in her car died while people drove around her
A transgender woman who was shot dead in her car is the eighth trans person killed in the US this year.
Sasha Wall, 29, died in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, on Sunday after suffering multiple gunshots.
Authorities have reported that her car was stopped on a country road for more than two hours with her body slumped over the steering wheel, as drivers went around her without stopping.
By the time someone did pull over to check, Sasha was dead.
As is common in the cases of a trans person being killed, Sasha – who came from Charlotte, North Carolina – was misgendered by local news reports and the police.
Donovan Dunlap, a friend of Sasha’s, wrote: “you had me always taking photo of you, you stayed ready for the camera.
“I will miss you my beautiful sister. I cannot sleep, I hope they find who did this.”
The Chesterfield County Sheriff’s Department does not have a suspect.
Amia Tyrae Berryman, a 28-year-old from Los Angeles, was the seventh trans person to be killed this year.
She found shot to death in a motel room in March.
In February, the body of Zakaria Fry, 28, was found on a road just outside of Santa Fe, Albuquerque.
Phylicia Mitchell was shot dead in Cleveland, Ohio. The 45-year-old was found in her living room on February 23 with bullet wounds in her chest.
Celine Walker, 36, was found shot to death in a motel room in Jacksonville, Florida in February.
Also in February, Tonya Harvey, 35, was shot dead on Shepard Street in Buffalo, New York.
Harvey’s murder followed the killings of Christa Leigh Steele-Knudslien, who founded the Miss Trans America pageant, and Viccky Gutierrez, who was burned to death in Los Angeles.
Steele-Knudslien was found stabbed to death in her home.
Her husband Mark Steele-Knudslien has been arrested on suspicion of the murder after he confessed to police that he had killed her.
However, he has since entered a not guilty plea at his arraignment hearing.
A total of 28 trans people were killed in the US in 2017, the highest number on record.
Most of the victims were trans women of colour.
Since March 31 last year, at least 190 trans people have been murdered worldwide.
This number, though it was arrived at with help from the Trans Murder Monitoring Project and the Transgender Day of Remembrance, is still almost certainly a conservative estimate, as reporting is imperfect in this area.
Last April, 31 trans people were killed.