CRIME
Black Trans Women Killed in Louisiana and Florida
Pair of murders contribute to deadly start to the new year for trans Americans
BY TAT BELLAMY-WALKER
Two Black transgender
women, one living in
Florida and another in
Louisiana, were killed
within the last week.
Alexus Braxton, also known as
Kimmy Icon Braxton, was killed in
Miami on February 4, while Fifty
Bandz was shot to death in Baton
Rouge on January 28. Police discovered
Braxton’s body at approximately
10:31 p.m at the California
Club Condominiums at 915 North
East 199 Street, the Miami-Dade
Police Department told Gay City
News.
Authorities pronounced Braxton
dead at the scene and are investigating
the incident as a homicide.
Miami-Dade Police Department
spokesperson Detective Colome
told Gay City News they are pursuing
all angles in the investigation
A Black transgender woman named Alexus Braxton, also known as Kimmy Icon Braxton, was found dead in Miami on February 4.
including the possibility of a hate
crime.
“We’re not discarding the possibility
that it can potentially go that
route as an additional charge,”
Colome said. “But as of right now
we’re defi nitely needing the assistance
of anyone who can give us
any information.”
The department usually releases
more details about the victim’s
death, but in this incident, authorities
said disclosing how it was
done may “jeopardize the case.”
Meanwhile, in Baton Rouge,
Lousiana, Bandz — who was just
21 when she died — was killed by a
man she was in a relationship with
for more than a year. The Baton
Rouge Police Department told the
Advocate, a Louisiana newspaper,
that Michael Joshua Brooks, 20,
killed her during a heated argument.
Brooks allegedly hid their onand
off-again relationship and had
threatened her life before, according
to the Advocate. Additionally,
witnesses described their interactions
as “very volatile.” Last summer,
Bandz posted videos of them
together, the Advocate reported.
Hours before the shooting,
Brooks was angry that Bandz delivered
a cell phone in front of his
girlfriend and brother. They then
started arguing over the phone,
according to a warrant obtained
by the Advocate. The incident
eventually escalated to the point
where Brooks asked the woman to
meet him in a different location —
and that was where she was later
found dead with multiple gunshot
wounds.
In a written statement, Tori Cooper,
FACEBOOK/KIMMY ICON BRAXTON
HRC’s director of community
engagement for the Transgender
Justice Initiative, noted that many
of these killings are a result of intimate
partner violence, an issue
disproportionately impacting the
community.
“In just one month, multiple
transgender or gender non-conforming
people have been killed,
four of whom were Black trans
women,” Cooper said in a written
statement. “This level of violence
is infuriating and heartbreaking.
This is an epidemic of violence
that must be stopped. We
will continue to affi rm that Black
Trans Lives Matter and say the
names of those we have lost, including
Fifty Bandz, but we must
do more.”
“Fifty was killed by someone
she knew — if we can’t trust the
people we know, who can we trust?
We need everyone to take action to
bring this horrifi c violence to an
end,” Cooper added.
On social media, Dee Dee Watters,
a transgender advocate who is
the new publisher of the TransGriot,
a site created by the late Monica
Roberts, held a virtual candlelight
vigil and released balloons in the
victim’s honor.
After a record-high 44 known
transgender Americans were killed
last year, the violence is seeping
into this year, with at least four
others having lost their lives so far
this year.
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