D.C. police are hunting for the murderer of 28-year-old Black transgender woman Dream Johnson. Bystanders contacted police around 12:30 a.m. last Saturday after finding Johnson shot several times and lying on the street. Police don’t think her murder was a hate crime, but the victim’s aunt believes otherwise after hearing from a witness.
“D.C. Fire and EMS responded to the scene and transported the victim to a local hospital where after all lifesaving efforts failed and the victim was pronounced dead,” a July 5 D.C. police statement said.
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Gunman kills young Black trans woman on city sidewalk while her friends flee
Her family is now demanding that her murder be investigated as a hate crime… but her killer remains at large.
Vanna Terrell, a woman who identified herself as Johnson’s aunt, told The Washington Blade that a witness to the shooting contacted Johnson’s brother after her murder. The witness allegedly saw three men approach Johnson and call her a derogatory name, leading the witness to believe that the men saw Johnson as transgender.
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Terrell also said that the witness saw one of the men continue to shoot Johnson in an act of “overkill,” leading Terrell to believe that the murder was a hate crime, though Officer Ebony Major, a D.C. police spokesperson, told the aforementioned publication in an email, “At this point there is nothing in the investigation that indicates the offense was motivated by hate or bias.”
Nevertheless, police are offering a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the arrest of Johnson’s killer. A memorial gathering honoring the victim’s life is scheduled for Saturday, July 12.
In a statement posted to Instagram, GLAAD wrote, “We cannot allow this pattern of violence against trans people — and especially trans women of color — to continue. No one should live in fear for being themselves.”
Black transgender women made up nearly half of the 36 known murders of trans and gender non-conforming people over the last year, according to a report from the Human Rights Campaign (HRC). The number of such murders has risen over the past few years, and transphobia and anti-trans policies have made these groups even more susceptible to poverty, social isolation, illness, and violence, the HRC’s report said.
The more recent murders have occurred amid a political climate where Republicans introduced over 550 anti-LGBTQ+ bills in state legislatures nationwide in 2023 and over 500 in 2024 — of these, 85 were signed into law in 2023 and 40 were signed into law in 2024. Many of the bills that became law targeted gender-affirming care for trans minors, banned trans individuals from playing sports, or rolled back LGBTQ+-inclusive school policies that affirm queer identities.
Proponents of this legislation have demonized trans people and their allies with hate-filled rhetoric and misinformation about “indoctrinating,” “sexualizing,” and “mutilating” children that embolden anti-trans stigma and violence. Furthermore, right-wing influencers have weaponized this rhetoric to spread hateful anti-trans messages on social media and to attack corporations and businesses that support their LGBTQ+ employees and customers.
The number of gender identity-related hate crimes may actually be higher as not all violence against trans and nonbinary individuals gets reported to police. Furthermore, police, the media and victims’ families sometimes misgender victims, essentially erasing their trans and nonbinary identities in the process.
According to the 2017-2022 Transgender Homicide Tracker, 73% of all confirmed homicides against Black trans women involved a gun.
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