Black Trans Woman Naomie Skinner Fatally Shot; Boyfriend Charged
The Detroit News reports. They found Skinner in a hallway with a fatal gunshot wound to her neck.Wayne County prosecutors told the News that Skinner and her boyfriend, Michael Cortez Norris, 26, had engaged in an argument that ended with the shooting.
They said Norris dragged her body from an apartment into the hallway and fled the scene.Police eventually tracked Norris down and arrested him.
He is charged with second-degree murder, tampering with evidence, and a felony-level firearm violation.Skinner is at least the fourth trans American to have died by violence in 2022.
Her death reflects the high level of intimate partner violence faced by trans people, advocates said.“There has been a spike in domestic violence calls,” Julisa Abad, a victim advocate for the Wayne County prosecutor’s office, told Detroit TV station WJBK. “A lot of people don't seek help for a number of reasons.”In a Human Rights Campaign press release, Abad added, “Trans women of color experience higher rates of all violence.
