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| Ruby Bracamonte, a close friend of shooting victim Bella Evangelista, spoke at a news conference last week. She and friends later reported that someone had vandalized a memorial at the spot where Evangelista was killed. (Photo by Michael Wise) |
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HOME > NEWS > LOCAL
By: LOU CHIBBARO JR. COMMENTS
 
D.C. police arrested a 22-year-old District man on Tuesday for the Aug. 21 murder
of a transgendered woman whose nude body was found about 2 a.m. in a wooded area
near Malcolm X Avenue and 2nd Street, SE.
The woman, identified by friends as Emonie Kiera Spaulding, 25, was the second
transgendered woman to die of gunshot wounds and the third to be shot in the
District during a five-day period beginning Aug. 16.
A statement released by police said Spaulding’s birth name was Aaron
Marshall and that she may also have been known as Emonie Marshall.
Police charged Antwan Derrick Lewis, a resident of the 2300 block of Hartford
Street, SE, with second-degree murder while armed in connection the case.
On Aug. 16, D.C. transgender resident Bella Evangelista, 25, was shot to death
about 4:30 a.m. at the corner of Arkansas Avenue and Allison Street, NW. Police
charged Antoine D. Jacobs, 22, with first-degree murder while armed in connection
with that incident. Police also listed the incident as a hate crime.
According to police sources, Jacobs told investigators he paid Evangelista
for oral sex and became enraged when he learned from someone else a short time
later that she was a biological male. Jacobs, upon learning Evangelista was
transgendered, returned to the scene where he left her and shot her.
The third incident occurred on Aug. 20, when police believe D.C. transgender
resident Dee Andre, whose legal name is said to be Dee Walker, was shot at
about 9:50 p.m. on the 300 block of I Street, NW. Andre was taken by ambulance
to a hospital, where she was listed last week in critical condition, police
said.
Sgt. Brett Parson, commander of the police Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit,
said each of the incidents appears to be separate and unrelated, and that police
have no evidence to indicate the crimes were committed by, or orchestrated
by, the same person or persons.
But in three vigils on city streets last week and in an Aug. 21 press conference
covered extensively by the media, local and national transgender activists
said they were certain the incidents stemmed from prejudice and misunderstanding
of transgendered people in all levels of society.
“Our lives are being taken by the simple fact that we are who we are,” said
Ruby Bracamonte, a close friend of Evangelista.
Friends of Evangelista, shaken by the news of two transgender shootings that
followed Evangelista’s murder, said they were jarred yet again when they
discovered on Aug. 21, that someone had destroyed the sidewalk shrine friends
had made for Evangelista at the site of her murder at Arkansas Avenue and Allison
Street, NW.
Evangelista’s friends said the flowers and candles placed on the sidewalk
during vigils held in her memory the previous two nights were smashed. Photos
of Evangelista that had been taped to a light pole were torn down and ripped
to shreds. Teddy bears placed at the site were also smashed, friends said.
“Somebody was sending us a message,” said Mara Keisling, executive director
of the National Center for Transgender Equality.
In the case of Spaulding’s murder near Malcolm X Avenue, police this
week said detectives with the department’s Violent Crimes Branch identified
Lewis as a suspect in the case and obtained a warrant for his arrest.
At about 4 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 26, Lewis surrendered to detectives at the Violent
Crimes Branch offices at 3244 Pennsylvania Ave., SE. He was scheduled to be
arraigned late Wednesday in D.C. Superior Court.
“At this time, the motive for this murder is still under investigation,” Parson
said in a statement. “However, there is not evidence to link it to other
acts of violence toward the transgender communities, nor is there any evidence
of hate/bias motivation,” Parson said. “The case will be presented
to a grand jury by the Office of the United States Attorney for Washington,
D.C.,” he said.
A relative of Spaulding told the Washington Post that Spaulding was from Springfield,
Mass., and Henderson, N.C., and had been living in the D.C. area for about
two years. An uncle, John Marshall, told the Post that Spaulding loved music
as a child and sang in a church choir.
D.C. gay activist Phil Pannell, who is a longtime activist in the Congress
Heights section of Southeast, where Spaulding’s body was found, said
Spaulding was part of a circle of gay and transgender residents who sometimes
patronized the Player’s Lounge, a popular nightclub on Martin Luther
King Jr. Avenue.
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