KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A black transgender woman who was found dead this week in a northeast Kansas City neighborhood was the second transgender woman to die in the area in the last four years.
Police have said Brooklyn Lindsey, 32, had signs of trauma to her face when her body was found early Tuesday but a cause of death has not been released and no suspect information has been released. Neighbors said they heard an argument and gunshots before her body was found on a porch in the neighborhood.
It remains unclear if Lindsey was killed because she was a transgender woman.
In 2015, Tamara Dominquez, a 36-year-old transgender woman, died at the same intersection when she was run over several times by a sports utility vehicle, The Kansas City Star reported . A man who called himself Dominquez's boyfriend said at the time that she had moved to Kansas City from Veracruz, Mexico, to escape discrimination against transgender people. The vehicle's driver, Luis Sanchez, pleaded guilty in 2018 to killing Dominquez and was sentenced to 18 years in prison.
Kris Wade, executive director of the Justice Project of Kansas City, said Lindsey, who had identified as a transgender woman for more than 10 years, was a kind person who struggled with homelessness and problems faced by many transgender people, such as losing her Medicaid coverage and her food stamps.
The Justice Project put Lindsey up in hotels when it had funds available.
"She was just at survival level," Wade said. "She had nowhere to go."
Korea Kelly, a case manager with the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project, said Lindsey's death was another tragic event for the LGBTQ community.
"I was very torn because it was another black girl gone and it hit home locally," said Kelly, who called Lindsey a caring person who loved to style hair and makeup.
The Human Rights Campaign, a national LGBTQ advocacy group, reported that at least 10 other transgender people, all of whom were black, have been killed in the U.S. this year. The group posted on Twitter Tuesday that it was mourning Lindsey's death.
"This epidemic of violence that disproportionately impacts Black transgender women must cease," the group wrote.
Maite Salazar, a non-binary transgender person who is running as a Democrat for Missouri's 5th Congressional District seat, said many transgender people don't come out because they fear violence.
"A lot of people are feeling unsafe right now," Salazar said.
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Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com
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