Black trans woman Tyianna ‘Davarea’ Alexander, 28, murdered in Chicago
The police department initially misgendered Alexander but insists it was not to 'insult' her and that they were going by the sex listed on her ID.
Another young Black trans woman was shot and killed in Chicago.
Davarea Alexander, also known as Tyianna, was shot and killed last week on the City’s South Side. It is unclear if the shooting was motivated by her identity but she is the second to be killed in the city within a month, per Chicago-SunTimes.
According to Cook County medical examiner’s office, Alexander was shot in the head. Police say a man fired shots on the 800 block of West 75th Street at 5 a.m. from a silver-colored vehicle. She died at the scene.
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“It’s really difficult to prove unless you have someone in custody,” said a public information officer for the Chicago Police Department Sally Brown to Gay City News in regards to if the crime was motivated by gender. “It’s just so hard to classify something as a hate crime without a lot of evidence pointing to that.”
The police department initially misgendered Alexander but insists it was not to “insult” her. They were going by the sex listed on her ID.
“I know people were upset about that at first, but that’s the reasoning behind it. We’re very sensitive to those things,” said Brown. “It’s just they have to put something down on the report like that.”
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A man, Brandon Gowdy, 31, was also shot at the scene. He passed away from his wounds and was pronounced dead at the University of Chicago Medical Center.
On Christmas Day, a transgender person Courtney Eshay Key was shot and killed in the city.
“Within the last month, Chicago has lost two Black trans women to transphobic violence,” said The Brave Space Alliance on Twitter per Gay City News. “Courtney Eshay Key and Davarea Alexander were murdered in our city, and now, once again, we must mourn as a community. All Black trans lives matter, and yet we are increasingly faced with systems and individuals who speak those words but do nothing to prove their commitment to Black and trans liberation.”
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