Trans Woman Murdered in D.C. Suburb Is Second This Year

Zoe Spears was shot to death in Fairmount Heights, Md., Thursday night, less than three months after another trans woman was murdered in the community.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

June 14 2019 1:13 PM EST

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A transgender woman was murdered Thursday night in Fairmount Heights, Md., a suburb of Washington, D.C. -- the second homicide of a trans woman in that town this year.

Zoe Spears, 23, who lived in Washington, was found with a gunshot wound on a street in Fairmount Heights just before midnight and was pronounced dead at the scene, The Washington Post reports.

Trans woman Ashanti Carmon was shot to death in the suburb March 27, and her body was discovered "less than half a mile away from where Spears was found," the Post notes. Her murder is still under investigation.

"There's no direct link that we see at this point, but that is obviously something we are monitoring very closely," said Maj. Brian Reilly, commander of the criminal investigation division for Prince George's County police, according to the paper.

"It's unusual that we had two murders like this within a couple blocks of each other," he added.

Both were found near Eastern Avenue, a street that divides Fairmount Heights from Washington. "I'm really pleading with the community and others to be aware and do not go on Eastern Avenue," Earline Budd, a trans activist and harm reduction coordinator with social services agency HIPS, told the Post.