Beloved San Francisco trans elder Dannielle Spillman killed in hit-and-run after dispute

Following a dispute, a driver hit and killed 74-year-old San Francisco resident Dannielle Spillman, a fixture in the transgender community who had lived in the city for two decades, according to KTVU. The driver, 30-year-old Valentino Cash Amil, has since been charged with murder and fleeing the scene of an accident, and is currently in custody.

Spillman was walking in San Francisco on Monday afternoon when she confronted a driver whose black Mercedes-Benz was partially blocking the sidewalk. After exchanging words at the driver’s side door, Spillman walked in front of the car and allegedly poured liquid from her water bottle onto the hood of the car, per KTVU.

Amil then accelerated into Spillman, who fell onto the hood of the car. After Amil drove several feet, Spillman slid off the car and landed on the ground. Amil then allegedly drove over her and left the scene, per KTVU. Spillman was pronounced dead only 10 minutes later. A nearby security camera captured video of the incident. Police arrested Amil about two hours afterward.

Spillman “dressed like a rock star and acted like your best possible grandma,” per a report on her death in Mission Local, a San Francisco-based news outlet. Friends who spoke to Local described her as “kind, tall, sweet, generous, funny and bright,” as well as “elegant and deeply caring.”

Local said that Spillman often dressed in black, donning long trench coats and hats akin to Mick Mars, former Mötley Crüe lead guitarist. She also loved “playing, buying, modifying and trading guitars” and would regularly show up at a San Francisco Guitar Center with treats for employees, including strawberries and baked goods.

“Dannielle Spillman was just one of the nicest, most personable people,” Connor McKeon, a Guitar Center employee, told Local. “She was someone that would come in to hang out. She knew everyone’s name and she knew all of our backstories.”

Spillman also visited the store Real Guitars, which was nearby to the site of the crash, several days a week to talk music history and even organized a holiday party for the staff, despite not being an employee, per the San Francisco Standard.

Real Guitars posted in remembrance of Spillman on Instagram.

“We are mourning the unexpected loss of a member of the Real Guitars family,” the shop wrote. “Frequent shop visitors might recognize Dannielle Spillman, who was killed in a hit-and-run blocks from the store on Monday afternoon. Dannielle was a deeply kind soul with an enormous heart who would always be sure to chat you up about music, the city, life. She really listened, and she really cared.” It continued, “She brought a lot of warmth to our curmudgeonly little store, and she will be greatly missed for it.”

The writer of the caption, who signed the text only as “Jesse,” also blasted “defamatory and degrading” false reporting on Spillman implying that “her death is somehow less important or more predictable because she was assumed to be homeless, something else that was also untrue.”

With regard to the footage of her death, the caption continues, “In my opinion, the footage unequivocally shows a driver making the decision to strike and run over a pedestrian, before fleeing the scene. It’s horrible enough to be murdered in the street, but to then be further degraded and blamed after death is shameful.”

Derrick Guerra, a caregiver for the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization the Shanti Project, told the San Francisco Standard Spillman had “one of the biggest, most compassionate hearts” he’d ever encountered, saying that she often carried water bottles with her to give to homeless people, and that she once nursed a pigeon that flew into her apartment back to good health.

Prior to her death, Spillman had begun to complain about the harsh differences in navigating San Francisco as a trans woman now versus in the past. She told Guerra that strangers had confronted her, misgendered her, and even attempted to punch her at a bus stop. A pest control worker called her “sir” several times while trying to access her apartment. She said she often felt safer as a trans woman in San Francisco in the 1990s than she did today.

An attorney for Amil, Seth Morris, has denied that Spillman’s killing was intentional and that Amil was trying to protect his family — his wife, a 4-month-old son and a 10-year-old daughter — from Spillman, whom Morris described as belligerent, who was trying to reach into the car, trying to hurt them,” per KTVU. He said that Amil tried to drive away and collided with Spillman.

“Murder requires an intentional act,” Morris said, per the Standard. “That’s not what happened.”

"By charging him with murder, when he acted in lawful, self-defense, when he panicked, when they're being attacked in the streets, is outrageous, and it needs to be stopped," Morris said, per KTVU.

The district attorney does not believe the incident required the use of lethal force.

“My office does not believe, based on that video evidence and the statements collected thus far, that this victim posed any significant threat that would have warranted the legal use of self-defense,” District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said on Thursday, per the Standard.

Friends, loved ones, and staff of the guitar shops she frequented gathered for a memorial outside Real Guitars on Thursday, per the Local.

While speaking to the Standard, Matt Stevens, a Real Guitars employee, said that Spillman had once seen him playing a specific instrument in the shop: a Fender bass six baritone guitar. The two spoke about the unique instrument, and it later disappeared off the shop floor. Later, Real Guitars owner Ben Levin had told him that Spillman had bought the guitar for Stevens and was waiting for a special occasion to give it to him.

This story was originally published on Them.