Ashley Burton 2023's 9th Victim of Lethal Anti-Trans Violence
Ashley Burton, a Black trans woman, was shot and killed by an unknown gunman last week in Atlanta, local news outlet Atlanta News First reported.
"Atlanta Police responded to a person down call at 415 Fairburn Avenue SW around 4:20 a.m." on April 11, the outlet relayed.
"Upon arrival, officers say they found 37-year-old transgender woman Ashley Burton dead from an apparent gunshot wound at City Park Apartments. Her body was found in a breezeway on the second floor."
The report went on to say that Burton's death is being investigated as a homicide, but made no mention of the killing being investigated as a hate crime, although Georgia has had a hate crimes law on the book since 2020. The law "allows for extra penalties to be applied for crimes motivated by a victim's race, color, religion, national origin, sex, sexual orientation, gender or disability," according to the New York Times.
Local news station Fox 5 Atlanta reported that police believe that Burton may have been shot inside her apartment and made it out to the breezeway before dying.
"She was a very sweet young lady," a person identified as Burton's "best friend" was quoted as telling the news station. "She was very full of life really. It was always smiles and laughs with us whenever we work together."
No suspect has been apprehended yet.
At least eight other transgender or nonbinary people, most of them people of color, have been killed so far this year, according to the running report maintained by the Human Rights Campaign, which has tracked lethal violence directed at transgender and gender-nonconforming people since 2013.
Trans people — particularly trans women of color — have suffered an epidemic of violence, causing high numbers of deaths in recent years. In 2022, at least 32 transgender people were murdered. The actual number is likely even higher thanks to deadnaming, misgendering, and underreporting.
2022's tally was lower, however, than 2021's record-breaking total of 59 known killings targeting transgender and gender-nonconforming individuals.