Transgender woman murdered on West Side; family calls for hate crime investigation

Family members are calling for a hate crime investigation after a transgender woman was killed in a shooting over the weekend on the West Side.

Redd, also known as Barbie to her friends, was shot and killed early Sunday in the 4500 block of West Monroe Street. Another person was critically wounded in the shooting, according to Chicago police.

Redd’s cousin Mariyah Phillips said she received a call from a close friend screaming “Redd’s not moving. … She just got shot.”

She kept calling back for updates, only to eventually be told her cousin, 26, was gone.

The pair grew up together, like siblings, in the Humboldt Park neighborhood, Phillips told the Sun-Times on Monday.

“We were really close,” she said. “[She] was always the person that, no matter what challenges [she] faced, she always made it out on top.”

Redd transitioned at 16 years old, and though she remained close with her relatives, found a community of chosen family members.

Phillips held a memorial balloon release Sunday and was shocked to see how many people came to mourn, and how much her cousin meant to them.

“I know how I love [her] and how I feel about [her]," Phillips said, "but the way they feel is different."

The memorial was held at the scene of the crime, but Phillips could not bear to stay long. Blood was still splattered on the sidewalk, and tape still marked off the spot where her cousin died.

‘We all just ran. And he kept shooting.’

Michelle Lee was with Redd and other friends early Sunday hanging out on the corner of Monroe Street and Kenton Avenue. Lee and Redd had been best friends since they were teenagers.

About 1:30 a.m. Sunday, Lee and Redd saw a man, who they’d seen in the area before, walk by and head to another group of people.

He approached a girl in that group and left the area, Lee said.

About 30 minutes later, the man returned to the intersection and opened fire, Lee told the Sun-Times.

“We heard one shot, [and] we all ran,” Lee said. “Nobody looked … we all just ran. And he kept shooting.”

There were more than 15 shell casings, from a rifle, recovered at the scene.

Redd was struck multiple times in the leg and back, police said.

Another person, 34, suffered a gunshot wound to the chest and was taken to Mount Sinai Hospital in critical condition, police said.

Lee and others came back to the block to find Redd on the ground; “We just all started crying.”

‘She wanted to be loved and respected’

As of Tuesday, there were no indications police were investigating the shooting as a hate crime.

But Redd’s family believes she and others were targeted because of their trans identity.

“I do feel like it was a hate crime,” Phillips told the Sun-Times. “I want to start [bringing] awareness [that] people are really attacking that community. I want people to know that they are being attacked.”

According to the Human Rights Campaign, 25 transgender and gender-expansive people have been killed across the country so far this year. About 44% of those killed were Black trans women.

Redd is the first trans woman killed in Chicago this year, though violence against trans women is often underreported.

At least 14 transgender and gender-nonconforming people have been killed in Chicago since 2016, according to data compiled by the Sun-Times, and the majority of those cases remain unsolved.

“Why is this not top of the news?” trans activist Zahara Bassett asked Monday. “A black trans woman has been senselessly murdered on Chicago's West Side, an area that's under-resourced and has been under-resourced when it comes to the LGBTQI community for decades and still is.”

Bassett is the founder and chief executive of Life is Work, a West Side-based nonprofit organization offering housing assistance, workforce development, HIV testing and other services to trans people of color.

“This baby was 26 years old," she said. "That is a baby, 26 years old and life was taken heinously.”

Redd’s cousin, Phillips, was told there was video footage of the alleged shooter, but as of Tuesday she had not received any updates from police.

Friends are still struggling to accept that Redd was taken from them in such a violent manner.

“One thing about Redd, she was not a mean girl,” Lee told the Sun-Times. “Her life was basically like Nicki Minaj. She loved Nicki Minaj.”

“There was something about that Nicki,” another friend Trevon Pope, said with a laugh.

“She wanted to be loved and respected,” Pope added. “That's how she was. That's one thing she didn’t play about. She loved and respected people.”