Congresswoman urges action on transgender murders

Washington, D.C., congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton on Thursday wrote to D.C. police chief Charles Ramsey to ask him to officially classify the killings of two transgendered teens as hate crimes and to make "a special effort to bring the perpetrators to justice." Eighteen-year-old Ukea Davis and 19-year-old Stephanie Thomas were the victims of execution-style shootings in southeast Washington on August 12; police described the murders as unusually violent. In her letter Norton said, "These killings were so shocking that I believe that the point urgently needs to be made that the city will not tolerate the murder of people because of their sexual orientation and will use every available provision of law to prosecute such crimes."