Black trans woman África Parrilla García shot to death in Puerto Rico

África Parrilla García, a 25-year-old Black transgender woman, was killed in San Juan, Puerto Rico, in February, and details of her life and death are just now coming to light after she was deadnamed and misgendered in early news reports.

She was shot several times about 1 a.m. February 2 on a San Juan street, according to Puerto Rican newspaper El Nuevo Día. She was impoverished and experiencing homelessness.

“A lot of trans women are on the streets and are made invisible because many people believe that their lives are worthless,” LeQueen, a trans artist and friend of García’s, told the paper. “They don’t give them the ‘spotlight’ that they deserve, and those men take advantage of that. They think, If I kill her here, no one is going to care.”

Comments from numerous friends show García “was loved,” Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondentsnotes.

Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Human Rights Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative, issued this statement: “África Garcia is more than just a name in a newspaper — like all victims of violence who are trans or gender-nonconforming, her life had meaning. It had value. Gun violence impacts far too many in Puerto Rico and across the United States, and we join África’s community in mourning her passing.”

Puerto Rico’s hate-crime law covers crimes based on sexual orientation and gender identity, but prosecutors rarely apply the law, according to HRC.

Anyone with information that will may in the investigation is asked to contact Agent Flores of the Homicide Division of the Criminal Investigation Corp. at (787) 793-1234.