A family is asking for the murder of a Black trans woman to be investigated as a hate crime after she was shot dead on a Chicago street.
Redd, 25, known to friends and family as Barbie, was pronounced dead at the scene after beiong shot multiple times in the back after a lone gunman opened fire around 1.30am. on Sunday, September 8. A second unidentified victim aged 34 was taken to a local hospital in critical condition suffering from a single gunshot wound to the chest, according to police.
A friend of Redd’s, Michelle Lee, said the pair gathered with other friends on a street corner on Sunday morning when a man they did not recognise walked past their group to talk with a girl in another group nearby. He then left the area, but Lee said the man returned about 30 minutes later with a gun and opened fire.
She said everyone ran after the first shot and that the man continued to shoot as they fled the scene. When they returned, they found Redd lying motionless on the pavement.
Despite the violent and hateful nature of the crime, police have yet to investigate Redd’s murder as a hate crime. And her family is asking questions.
“I do feel like it was a hate crime,” Redd’s cousin Mariyah Phillips said. “I want to start [bringing] awareness [that] people are really attacking that community. I want people to know that they are being attacked.”
Her friends remembered Redd as a kind and loving person. “She wanted to be loved and respected,” Trevon Pope, a friend, said. “That’s how she was. That’s one thing she didn’t play about. She loved and respected people.”
Redd is the 26th known trans or gender-nonconforming person to die by violence in the United States in 2024.
