Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Advocacy group calls for investigation of transgender woman’s murder


Lateisha Green

The Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) is urging the Syracuse (New York) Police Department and Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office to investigate the likely hate crime motivation in the murder of Lateisha Green, a 22-year-old African American transgender woman.

On the evening of November 14, Green and her brother, Mark Cannon, were sitting in a car preparing to leave a party when they were shot with a .22 caliber rifle. A single bullet grazed Cannon’s arm and then penetrated Green’s chest, severing her aorta.

According to Chief of Police Gary Miguel, the murder suspect, 20-year-old Dwight DeLee, retrieved the .22 caliber rifle when he heard other people at the party “making profane and vulgar comments in regards to the sexual preference” of Green and her brother. “Our suspect took a rifle and shot and killed this person, also wounding his brother, for the sole reason he didn’t care for the sexual preference of our victim,” says Miguel.

“Transgender people face discrimination and violence in communities across the country,” says TLDEF executive director Michael Silverman. “Lateisha’s senseless death demonstrates the increased risk of violence transgender people face.”

Gary Miguel adds, “Isn’t that sad? Isn’t that a sad situation that that’s the sole reason why?”

Sources:

“Syracuse Trans Murder Called Hate Crime.”

“Transgender Advocacy Group Calls Upon Authorities to Fully Investigate Transgender Woman’s Death”

“Local transsexual’s death draws state Human Rights officials to Syracuse”

November 29, 2008 Posted by | African Americans, gun violence, Hate Crimes, New York, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, transgender persons, Uncategorized | 2 Comments