The Metropolitan Police Department is asking for the public’s help in solving the fatal shooting of a transgender woman in Northeast D.C.
Dream Johnson, 28, was reportedly walking along Benning Road NE, between the Carver Langston and Kingman Park neighborhoods, when she was shot in the early morning hours of Saturday, July 5.
According to a news release from the Metropolitan Police Department, officers from MPD’s Sixth District were flagged down in the 2000 block of Benning Road NE for an unconscious woman. When they arrived, they found a female victim — later identified as Johnson — suffering from gunshot wounds.
Johnson was transported by D.C. Fire and EMS to a local hospital, where doctors attempted to save her life. Despite their efforts, she was later pronounced dead.
MPD’s official statement did not acknowledge Johnson’s gender identity or her preferred name, nor did it classify the shooting as a potential bias-motivated crime.
Johnson’s aunt, Vanna Terrell, told The Washington Blade that Johnson had planned to legally change her name but hadn’t yet done so.
Terrell said two teenage witnesses told a friend they saw three men approach Johnson and shout a slur at her before one opened fire, continuing to shoot until the magazine was empty.
Local transgender advocate Earline Budd said the details of the shooting — particularly the number of bullets fired — suggest “overkill,” indicating the crime may have been personal in nature or motivated by anti-transgender hatred, which could warrant hate crime charges.
D.C. police told WTTG-FOX 5 that, at this time, there is no evidence the killing was motivated by hate or bias, though the investigation remains ongoing.
A $25,000 reward is being offered for information leading to an arrest and conviction. Anyone with tips is encouraged to contact Detective Natasha Kennedy, the lead investigator on the case, at 202-380-6198.
Chris Kostka, a gay man visiting Provincetown, Massachusetts, was walking along Bradford Street between 1 and 2 a.m. on Monday, June 30, when, near Howland Street at the town’s eastern end, three men shoved him to the pavement and began kicking him while yelling anti-gay slurs.
"All of a sudden I just feel myself getting pushed to the ground," Kostka told Boston NBC affiliate WBTS-CD. "I fly forward and I turn. I see three guys, and of course, I'm stunned from just being thrown to the pavement, and I just cover my face, go into a fetal position as I'm getting kicked and getting called some gay slurs."
A fundamentalist church in Indianapolis is defending a June 29 sermon in which a lay preacher urged congregants to pray for LGBTQ people to die and suggested they kill themselves.
The remarks, delivered by Stephen Falco during a “Men’s Preaching Night” at Sure Foundation Baptist Church, included multiple homophobic slurs, biblical references, and rants against Pride Month, LGBTQ rights, and what he called “disgusting” and “evil” behavior, according to TheIndianapolis Star.
"Why do I hate sodomites, why do I hate f****ts? Because they attack children," Falco ranted in the sermon, video of which was posted to Sure Foundation Baptist Church's YouTube channel. "They're coming after your children, they are attacking them in schools today, and not only schools, in public places, and they're proud about it!
Two teenage girls were shot and another was stabbed during a chaotic brawl in Greenwich Village, a few blocks from the historic Stonewall Inn, after Sunday’s NYC Pride Parade ended.
According to police, a fight broke out between two groups of young people in Sheridan Square, near Christopher Park and the Stonewall National Monument, site of the 1969 uprising considered the seminal moment of the modern LGBTQ rights movement.
The altercation began around 10:15 p.m., when a 16-year-old girl from one group moved through the crowd in the square and pulled out a 9-millimeter gun, aiming it at a boy's head in the opposing group. She missed, firing two shots, one of which struck a 17-year-old girl visiting from Bayonne, N.J., in the thigh.
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