Small Virginia town in suburban Washington D.C. says NO to Pride Month

HAMPTON, Va. – Police investigators on this Tidewater, Virginia neighborhood say they’re persevering with their investigation into the April 2 capturing demise of a 17-year-old transgender lady who witnesses say was shot a number of occasions at a celebration by the boyfriend of a younger lady who was arguing with a buddy of the sufferer.

Police stated the sufferer, who pals have recognized as Hampton resident Ariyanna Mitchell, was pronounced lifeless on the scene shortly after 2:00 a.m. on April 2 at a residence on the five hundred block of Wine Avenue in Hampton.

An announcement launched by Hampton police says the investigation into the incident led to the arrest on April 9 of Jimmy Leshawn Williams, 19, on costs of 1 depend of Homicide and one depend of Use of Firearm in Fee of a Felony in reference to Mitchell’s homicide. The assertion says Williams, a resident of Nofolk, Va., was taken into custody in Chesapeake, Va.

Native TV station WAVY 10 reported it spoke with a buddy of Mitchell who stated the capturing stemmed from a combat at a celebration in Norfolk earlier within the evening of the capturing between the buddy and Williams’ girlfriend.  

“{Williams’ girlfriend] was going to get her boyfriend to shoot me and everyone on this home,” WAVY quoted the buddy as saying. In accordance with WAVY, the buddy stated the bullets fired by Williams had been meant for her, not Mitchell.

The TV information station additional experiences that court docket paperwork disclose {that a} witness informed police Williams arrived on the home in Hampton the place the get together was happening in his girlfriend’s automotive and requested Mitchell whether or not she was concerned in a combat involving his girlfriend. The witness reportedly informed police Mitchel stated she was concerned. Different press experiences have cited sources saying Mitchell intervened to assist defend her buddy, who received into an altercation with Williams’ girlfriend.

“Paperwork says the witness informed police Williams requested if Mitchell was a boy or a lady,” WAVY TV information experiences in one in every of its tales on the incident. “Paperwork say Mitchell replied a boy, and that’s when Williams shot Mitchell a number of occasions,” WAVY experiences.

Associates of Mitchell have stated she recognized as a lady.

An earlier police assertion launched on the time the homicide occurred, which appealed to the general public for details about the then unidentified suspect, identifies sufferer Mitchell as a “17-year-old male” and doesn’t launch Mitchell’s identify.

Hampton police spokesperson Sgt. Reggie Williams informed the Washington Blade it was the sufferer’s household that recognized Mitchell as a male.

“As a result of the sufferer is a juvenile, we don’t determine the sufferer in our press releases,” Williams stated. “However based on the household, the sufferer is a 17-year-old male,” he stated.

Williams stated copies of the police report for the incident wouldn’t be accessible at the moment as a result of the investigation is continuous.

“The motive and circumstances surrounding this incident stay underneath investigation and there’s no additional data to launch at the moment,” the sooner police assertion launched on the time of the homicide says.

An obituary for Mitchell posted on the web site of the ME Fisher Funeral Dwelling in Newport Information, Va., which dealt with funeral preparations for Mitchell, seems to contradict the police declare that Mitchell’s dad and mom recognized Mitchel as a male. The obituary, which presumably was ready from data supplied by Mitchell’s household, refers to Mitchell as a girl and makes use of her feminine first identify.

“Ariyanna was a scholar in her junior 12 months on the East Finish Academy underneath the course of Mrs. Ruby Gilliam, CEO,” the obituary says. “She was an avid member of the Triple E (Electra Eagles Elite) Dance Academy underneath the steerage of Mrs. Pandora Carter,” the obituary continues.  “Ariyanna liked dancing and styling hair. She was actually distinctive, humorous, and liked by everybody.”

The obituary identifies Mitchell’s dad and mom, Kashunda Mitchell and Marvin Chadwick, and 6 siblings together with grandparents, aunts, and 7 cousins as amongst Mitchell’s surviving relations.  

Nevertheless, the obituary, whereas utilizing feminine pronouns and utilizing her chosen first identify of Aryanna, additionally makes use of in its headline a male first identify.

The Human Rights Marketing campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, stated in a press release that Mitchell’s demise marked at the least the 11^th violent homicide of a transgender or gender non-conforming individual within the U.S. in 2022. The HRC assertion says the group was conscious of at the least 57 transgender or gender non-conforming deaths in 2021 as a result of violence, which it says was the biggest variety of deadly tans violence incidents recorded in a single 12 months because it started monitoring anti-trans violence in 2013.

“We are saying ‘at the least’ as a result of too usually these deaths go unreported – or misreported,” the HRC assertion says, including that the variety of trans murders could possibly be far better than the numbers reported by regulation enforcement businesses.