The recent homicide of a transgender woman in Brookhaven went mostly unnoticed until this week, when community activists planned a vigil to honor her memory.
Sophie Arrieta Vasquez, 36, was found dead May 4 after being shot multiple times in her Brookhaven apartment. But until a week later, there was hardly any media coverage. Police reports made note of the homicide but not that the victim was transgender.
An arrest has not been made, and the incident has not been labeled as a bias crime by police, meaning investigators don’t have evidence at this point that Vasquez’ gender was the reason for the shooting. The circumstances have prompted some to question whether the incident is being downplayed by police and news outlets due the victim’s gender identity.
“We demand justice and accountability,” Li Ann Sanchez, executive director of Community Estrella, said in a text message to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “We will not let her death go in vain or be swept under the rug.”
Sanchez’s organization is holding a Wednesday afternoon vigil at the apartment complex where Vasquez was killed. Vasquez, an immigrant from Costa Rica, was a member of Community Estrella, an organization that supports the trans and Latinx community, Sanchez said.
Brookhaven police Lt. David Snively said investigators haven’t released much information about the incident or a potential motive because there has been no arrest. Until Wednesday, the department had not issued a news release, instead answering inquiries on an individual basis.
“Generally, we don’t do a (news) release until we start getting inquiries on homicide cases,” he said. “What our experience shows, if it sits quietly, a lot of times our offenders sort of get a sense of confidence. It kind of emboldens them to stay put, which gives our detectives time to catch up.”
The shooting
Police responded to The Atlantic Brookhaven apartments about 8:15 a.m. May 4, Snively said. Vasquez, who is identified as male in the police report, was found dead in the doorway of her apartment. She was likely killed about six hours earlier, investigators said.
Five shell casings and three bullets from a .380 caliber handgun were recovered from the scene. Police have identified a person of interest but have not released the person’s name. No further information on the investigation were provided.
“There’s no intention to withhold the information except when there’s an investigative lead,” Snively said. “And that’s where we’re at with this case.”
Angela Arrieta Vasquez, the victim’s sister, said police have kept her family updated on the homicide investigation. She added that her sister moved to the Atlanta area about 12 years ago.
“We have faith that sooner or later, everything will come to the light,” she said in an email.
Anyone with information on the shooting is encouraged to contact investigators at 404-637-0600 or submit an anonymous tip to the Crime Stoppers hotline at 404-577-8477.
Channel 2 Action News was the only news outlet to come to the scene when investigators were present May 4, Snively said. He added that the news station ran a brief live segment on the incident but didn’t publish anything online.
Hunting down details
Police didn’t receive any other questions about this case from news outlets until Tuesday, when publications that focus on LGBT issues heard about Sophie Vasquez’s death on social media.
Matt Hennie, founder and co-publisher of Project Q Atlanta, said he was able to corroborate the homicide’s details from Brookhaven’s interactive crime map, which launched this week. Police then confirmed the active investigation.
He said it’s common for media outlets to write initial crime stories without knowing that a victim is transgender or non-binary, which often leads to victims being misgendered. Police incident reports, written shortly after a crime is reported, often have the same problem.
“They might not know initially that the homicide victim is transgender. That seems to be the case here,” said Hennie, who has roughly two decades of crime reporting experience. “... I have not come across a police agency that I’ve worked with that has refused to disseminate information about a crime because the victim was trans or LGBT or that somehow played a role.”
Vasquez is the second transgender woman to be killed in metro Atlanta this year, according to Project Q. Bianca Bankz, 30, was the victim of an apparent murder-suicide at a northwest Atlanta apartment in January. The police report and initial media reports identified Bankz as male.
A few national organizations track the number of homicide cases where transgender people are the victims. The National Black Justice Coalition and the Human Rights Campaign list roughly two dozen such cases so far in 2021.
“There clearly are incidents where law enforcement agencies look the other way and overlook the fact that it’s a bias crime,” Hennie said. “But I think a lot of cases, when that incident report is initially filled out, there may not be enough evidence to indicate that it was a bias crime through no fault of the responding officer.”
‘Supported us in every way they can’
Community activists, including Sanchez, aim to keep homicide cases like these from fading into the background.
The vigil to honor Vasquez will take place 7 p.m. Wednesday at the Windmont Drive apartment complex. Snively said Brookhaven police officers will attend, and Rep. Matthew Wilson, D-Brookhaven, also said he’ll be there.
“Stop killing us. We are not hurting anyone” Sanchez said. “The only thing we are doing is surviving, which is something that society imposed on us.”
Hennie said its too soon to tell whether this incident is a bias crime, but he said crimes against members of the LGBT community show the need for hate crime laws, further police training and other non-discrimination efforts. The state Legislature passed a hate crime law in 2020. Hennie specifically mentioned multiple Georgia bills stalled during the 2021 legislative session, which all focused on transgender rights.
“The state’s hate crime law touches on ... the need for better training for local law enforcement agencies on bias crimes and hate crimes and how to recognize when they might be responding to one,” Hennie said.
Angela Vasquez said she and other members of her family will not be able to make it, but they’re appreciative of the support they’ve received. She created a GoFundMe page to help pay for funeral costs, and it has raised more than $6,000 as of Wednesday afternoon.
“The community has supported us in every way they can,” she said. “I am very thankful for all my family, friends and Sophie’s friends and many more that I didn’t know personally but that love Sophie very much.”
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