And now Duanna Johnson Is Dead
November 10th, 2008 by Autumn SandeenThere’s an article out today, published by Eyewitness News, Memphis, Tennessee. It’s entitled Homicide Victim Identified as Transgendered Person, Duanna Johnson.
Her name may be familiar to you. Duanna was the Tennessee transgender woman who was shown on surveillance tape being beaten by Memphis Police Officers — it was reported on just this past June.
From today’s Eyewitness News article on her homicide:
Memphis police say it happened just before midnight at Hollywood near Staten Avenue, Sunday, November 9, 2008.
According to detectives, when officers arrived at the scene, they found the body lying in the street. Police say a witness heard gunfire and then saw three people running away from the scene. Investigators do not have any suspects at this time.
Lawyer Murray Wells confirmed to Eyewitness News that the person who was killed is his client Duanna Johnson. He says Johnson was often in the area where she was killed.
Murray says Johnson was trying to leave Memphis and go back to her hometown of Chicago. According to Murray, Jonson was just about homeless trying to live in Memphis. He says the apartment where Jonson was living did not have power. Murray says he was helping Johnson buy a bus ticket to Chicago.
Johnson was the subject of an alleged video taped beating that happened in June of 2008. Johnson, who had been arrested on a prostitution charge, said former Memphis Police Officer Bridges McRae beat her after making derogatory remarks about her sexuality. Johnson said another man, Officer J. Swain, held her down during the beating. Both officers were fired from the department.
Duanna was suing the city of Memphis for $3.1 million for that past beating — so why I don’t have a lot of faith now in the Memphis Police solving Duanna’s homicide?
I’m trying to keep this all in perspective, but it’s hard. Thousands of people have been marching over Proposition 8 passing in California; who remembers — who marches for — our dead?
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Update: The Tennessee Transgender Political Coalition‘s statement on Duanna Johnson’s homicide (select the image below to enlarge as a PDF document):
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Related: Pam’s House Blend tag: Duanna Johnson
Posted in hate crimes and hate violence, transgender, Transgender Day of Remembrance | 2 Comments »
November 10th, 2008 at 9:27 pm
[...] And now Duanna Johnson Is Dead [...]
November 11th, 2008 at 3:01 pm
This is tragic and can’t be tolorated. This goes beyond the fact that she was a transwoman. Even without that stat she was brutalized by the police and later shot dead.
Did anyone notice that she was black? Memphis is very last century and racial hatred still burns there. The fact that she was a transwoman only makes a sad story worse.
We need to make sure that we are treated with respect in our own community. I haven’t heard of any horror stories like this in San Diego and we should stand united in outrage should anything like this happen here.
Think globally, act locally!