22-year-old Elijah Cruz Segura is being held in police custody for allegedly murdering trans woman and drag performer Natalia ‘Smüt’ Lopez in the Milpitas area of California on April 23.
According to the Bay Area Reporter, police said the pair had been “dating for several months” before Lopez was fatally stabbed by Segura and pronounced dead at a local hospital.
Lopez’s sister, Vanessa Singh, said the family is “still in shock and overwhelmed with painful feelings.”She added: “She [Lopez] would step into a room like a firework.
Everywhere she went, she brought energy, fierce looks, and a personality that shined bright like a diamond.” She is among the 16 trans people to have been killed this year in the US, with three murders taking place.