Murder Of Trans Woman Dejanay Stanton Leads To Outpouring Of Grief Across The Country

CHICAGO — A 24-year-old trans woman was found murdered Thursday in Bronzeville, according to reports.

At 11:20 a.m., the woman was found dead in the 4000 block of South King Drive, police said. She had been shot in her head.

The victim was identified as Dejanay Stanton, 24, in Cook County Medical Examiner’s Office records. An autopsy showed Stanton died from a gunshot wound in her head in a homicide.

Stanton is at least the 17th trans person murdered this year in the United States, according to the Human Rights Campaign.

Word of Stanton’s death, first reported by Windy City Media, spread quickly and people posted tributes to social media.

“She was the most humblest girl you’ll ever know!” one person wrote on Facebook.

“She was loved by everyone,” another person posted. “She was a daughter, a sister, a mother.”

“One [life] lost for us is world shaking!!” LaSaia Wade, executive director of the Brave Space Alliance and prominent trans activist, wrote on Facebook. “We feel [it] so deeply in us because it can be me tomorrow just because I’m living in my truth.”

The Howard Brown Health Center, which provides health care for LGBTQ people, wrote that it was mourning “the loss of a spirited woman and trans sibling” after Stanton’s death but said it would continue “forging space” for trans women of color.

Other groups, including the Human Rights Campaign and Fierce Chicago, also posted messages decrying Stanton’s slaying and violence against trans women of color.

Police said an investigation into the slaying is ongoing, and would provide no further information.