A second Black transgender woman was found shot to death in South Carolina just 15 days after the murder of Denali Berries Stuckey.
24-year-old Pebbles LaDime “Dime” Doe was found shot to death on Sunday inside a car parked in a driveway in Allendale County, located near the Georgia border, northwest of Savannah, NY Daily News reports
The Human Rights Campaign noted that Doe’s death was initially misreported after she was misnamed and misgendered in the crime. The organization says that happens quite often in crimes against the transgender community.
RELATED: Transgender Woman Of Color Found Shot To Death In South Carolina
Doe’s murder has left the LGBT community in high alert amid a string of fatal violence against the transgender woman of color. However, despite the increased concern surrounding the case, Allendale County law enforcement has declined to comment on the case.
“All I can say is I’m not releasing anything, a coroner’s office representative told the Post and Courier on Thursday.
Heartbroken family members of Doe expressed their pain over her death.
“They have hurt us in the worst way, the very worst way,” Dime Doe’s aunt Rhonda Doe told local news station WJBF.
Barbara Kolberg, a cousin of Doe’s added that she had “always been a friendly person to everyone. The joy of anyone’s life.”
“All I know is that I love [Dime] and I miss [Dime] and I’m very sad,” Kolberg said.
The National Center for Transgender Equality shared a list of all the victim’s names, further reflecting the disturbing trend plaguing the transgender community.
🕯️Dana Martin
— National Center for Transgender Equality (@TransEquality) August 7, 2019
🕯️Jazzaline Ware
🕯️Ashanti Carmon
🕯️Claire Legato
🕯️Muhlaysia Booker
🕯️Michelle 'Tamika' Washington
🕯️Paris Cameron
🕯️Chynal Lindsey
🕯️Chanel Scurlock
🕯️Zoe Spears
🕯️Brooklyn Lindsey
🕯️Denali Berries Stuckey
🕯️Kiki Fantroy
🕯️LaDime “Dime” Doehttps://t.co/t3RwxM0VOB
Chase Glenn, the executive director for Alliance for Full Acceptance, a Charleston-based LGBTQ advocacy organization, told the Post and Courier that Doe’s death calls for a state of emergency for the community.
“We are sounding the alarm,” Glenn said. “We are in an absolute state of emergency for black transgender women.”
Her death comes just 15 days after 29-year-old Denali Berries Stuckey was found shot to death on the side of a road in North Charleston shortly after 4 a.m. on July 20.
“This is definitely an ongoing trend we are seeing,” Beverly Tillery, executive director of the Anti-Violence Project, the country’s largest anti-LGBTQ violence organization told the Daily News in May.
“We’ve been seeing now [that] for years trans women of color in particular are disproportionately impacted by hate violence,” Tillery said, according to anti-LGBTQ violence data the project has collected for more than 20 years.
Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren said more needs to be done to combat anti-trans violence.
“My heart aches for Pebbles LaDime Doe, Kiki Fantroy, and their loved ones,” the 2020 presidential hopeful wrote on Twitter. “The murder of Black trans women is a crisis that we must call out—and address head-on.”
