A transgender woman was found killed in a West Baltimore alley, prompting demands for answers and justice

Advocates for the transgender community are calling for a prioritized investigation of a killing this month of a transgender woman in Maryland’s most populous city.

Tai’Vion Lathan had an infectious laugh that made everyone around her smile. She loved getting creative with her hair, make up, and cooking, and was especially known in the family for her homemade chicken Alfredo. But more than anything, she loved her mother and never skipped a day without speaking to her. Her family is now mourning Lathan, a 24-year-old known affectionately as ‘Tai,’ who was found fatally shot in an alley in Baltimore’s West Baltimore neighborhood on August 4, according to city police. Police had not publicly speculated on a motive or announced an arrest in connection with the killing as of Thursday. At least 24 transgender and gender-expansive people, including Lathan, have been killed so far in the United States this year – 42% of whom were Black transgender women, and more than 70% of whom were victims of color, according to the Human Rights Campaign. “She was fun, loving, and caring,” Lathan’s great aunt Carolyn Robinson-Owens told CNN, adding that just next month, Lathan was to start school to become a nurse who cares for elderly patients. “One thing I would like for the world to remember is to not just put the first definition of transgender in front of Tai’s name, and to remember that Tai’Vion was a person, and a beautiful person at that, inside and out, that she was loved by many and respected by many, and her family is going to miss her tremendously.”