Koko Da Doll, who was featured in “Kokomo City,” a documentary about 4 Black transgender intercourse staff that received awards on the Sundance Film Festival this yr, was fatally shot in Atlanta on Tuesday, the movie’s director stated.
Koko Da Doll, 35, whose title was Rasheeda Williams, “was the latest victim of violence against Black transgender women,” the director, D. Smith, stated in a press release.
“I created ‘Kokomo City’ because I wanted to show the fun, humanized, natural side of Black trans women,” Ms. Smith stated. “I wanted to create images that didn’t show the trauma or the statistics of murder of transgender lives. I wanted to create something fresh and inspiring. I did that. We did that! But here we are again.”
The Atlanta Police Department stated that it was actively investigating three violent crimes in opposition to transgender ladies this yr — the deadly capturing on Tuesday, one other deadly capturing on April 11 and a capturing that critically injured a feminine sufferer in January.
“While these individual incidents are unrelated, we are very aware of the epidemic-level violence Black and Brown transgender women face in America,” the division stated in a press release.
The division stated it was exploring the likelihood that the shootings had been motivated by hate.
But it added: “In these cases, our investigators have not found any indication the victim was targeted for being transgender or a member of the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community, and these cases do not appear to be random acts of violence.”
The police didn’t launch the title of the sufferer in Tuesday’s killing, and an investigator on the Fulton County Medical Examiner’s Office stated on Friday that the sufferer’s household had requested that the title not be launched.
The police requested for the general public’s assist in figuring out an individual who was seen on surveillance footage. A quick video clip launched by the Atlanta Police Department confirmed an individual carrying a football-style jersey with No. 2 on the entrance strolling by way of a car parking zone and up the steps outdoors a home at night time.
The Human Rights Campaign stated that no less than 10 transgender or gender nonconforming individuals have been killed within the United States this yr, though lots of the deaths will not be reported or are misreported.
Since 2013, a complete of 19 transgender or gender-nonconforming individuals have been killed in Georgia, the group stated, and 9 of these killings occurred in Atlanta.
Ms. Williams starred in “Kokomo City,” together with Liyah Mitchell, Dominque Silver and Daniella Carter. The movie, which was shot in black and white, was praised by critics for its frank exploration of themes of labor, race, gender, magnificence and intercourse, and it received the NEXT Innovator Award and Audience Award: NEXT at Sundance.
Harris Doran, a producer of “Kokomo City,” stated he was grief-stricken and, “To know Koko, was to love Koko.”
“She was the sweetest, kindest and gentlest soul,” he stated on Instagram, including: “Koko was working so hard to get out. She is brilliant in the film and when you see it, you will fall in love with her just as we all have.”
Mr. Doran stated her killing was “the reason sex work should be decriminalized.”
“Sex work is work,” he stated. “If it were not made illegal for purely puritanical reasons, then it could be regulated and women like Koko could be protected.”
The Sundance Film Festival stated on Twitter that it was honored that Koko Da Doll had attended the pageant, “where she reminded Black trans women, ‘We can do anything, we can be whatever we want to be.’”
Source: www.nytimes.com