[News] [DC, USA] Police identify trans woman fatally stabbed at D.C. bus stop
Stephanie Stevens
Police identify trans woman fatally stabbed at D.C. bus stop
By Lou Chibbaro Jr. on February 4, 2012
[Photo: <http://bit.ly/xxqFTJ> In an effort to speed the
investigation, several trans activists in DC shared this photo of
Deoni Jones yesterday before police made a positive identification
using fingerprints. (Screenshot via Facebook) ]
D.C. police late Friday identified a transgender woman found suffering
from a fatal stab wound at a bus stop in Northeast Washington Thursday
night as 23-year-old Deoni Jones, whose birth name was identified as
JaParker Jones.
Homicide Branch Lt. Robert Adler, who is leading the investigation
into Jones’ death, said police have also released a video of a man
considered a suspect in the murder. He said the video can be viewed on
YouTube.
“We’re hoping someone from the public will recognize the person in the
video and tell us who it is,” Adler told the Blade in an interview at
the Homicide Branch headquarters in Southwest D.C.
Adler said Jones’ family members told investigators that Jones also
had been known by the first name Logan.
[Video: <Person of Interest in Homicide, 4900 block of East Capitol
St., NE, 2/2/12 > Person of Interest in Homicide, 4900 block of East
Capitol St., NE, 2/2/12]
Police issued a statement early Friday afternoon saying a citizen
flagged down a Metro transit police officer about 8:15 p.m. Thursday
to report an assault at a bus stop on the 4900 block of East Capitol
Street, N.E.
“Upon arrival, the officer located a transgender female who was
unconscious and unresponsive suffering from a stab wound,” the
statement says. “Units from the Sixth District and D.C. Fire and
Emergency Medical Services personnel responded to the scene. The
victim was transported to a local hospital and was admitted in
critical condition,” the statement says.
“On Friday, Feb. 3, 2012, at 2:35 a.m., the victim was pronounced
dead. The decedent has not been identified at this time,” the initial
statement said.
The video released by police later in the day shows a man walking
across a street wearing a dark jacket and light colored pants. His
face is not clearly visible in the video.
Adler said investigators have obtained a description of the suspect
from “a variety of different sources.”
“The person we are looking for at this time is a black male, 30 to 40
years old, five-feet-nine to six-feet tall, medium build, medium
complexion with a beard,” Adler said. “At the time of the incident the
person was wearing a black jacket with a grey hooded sweatshirt
underneath it and a pair of what we believe is jeans.”
Asked whether evidence exists to indicate the killing was a hate
crime, Adler said “At this time we are still investigating if it is or
is not a hate crime. And as the investigation proceeds we should
probably get a better idea of whether that was a factor in the
assault.”
The D.C. Trans Coalition issued a statement Friday saying it had
learned through its own sources that a third person was at the bus
stop when the stabbing took place and chased after the attacker. The
statement says the attacker escaped when the witness realized that
Jones was in need of immediate medical attention.
The statement says the group learned that Jones had been stabbed in
the cheek and was taken by ambulance to Prince George’s County
Hospital.
Earline Budd, an official with the transgender services and advocacy
group Transgender Health Empowerment, said Friday morning that
investigators planned to bring one or more photos of the victim to the
THC office with the hope that someone there could identify the victim.
But Adler said homicide investigators identified Jones through
fingerprints. He declined to say whether Jones’ finger prints had been
on file in police and court records from a prior arrest.
D.C. Superior Court records show that a defendant on record as
JaParker Jones had been arrested three times in D.C. between 2008 and
2011. The records show Jones had been charged in 2008 and 2011 with
misdemeanor simple assault. In the 2008 case, prosecutors dropped the
charge. In the 2011 case, a judge dismissed the case after determining
prosecutors failed to prepare for the case at the time of trial.
In the third case, filed in 2010, court records show that Jones had
been charged with second-degree theft and possession of a controlled
substance, both misdemeanors. The records show Jones pleaded guilty to
the second-degree theft change and the government dropped the
possession of controlled substance charge as part of a plea bargain.
A judge sentenced Jones to a 150-day suspended jail term and ordered
her to enroll in a drug treatment program and to undergo drug testing
as well as counseling during a one-year period of probation, court
records show.
Captain Edward Delgado, director of the department’s Special Liaison
Unit, which oversees the Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit, told LGBT
activists in an email Thursday night that the stabbing occurred after
some type of altercation took place between Jones and the suspect.
“Apparently there was a fight with the knife involved,” Delgado said
in his email. “An adult female (transgendered) was stabbed at least
once to the head by a black male wearing heavy dark coat with grey
striped hat.”
A separate statement released by the Metropolitan Police Department’s
public information office says police offer a reward of up to $25,000
to anyone that provides information leading to the arrest and
conviction of the person or persons wanted for any homicide committed
in D.C.
Anyone with information is asked to call police at 202-272-9099.
Anonymous information can be submitted to the department’s “TEXT TIP
LINE” by text messaging 50411, the police statement says.
Two transgender women were murdered in the city in separate incidents
in 2011. Both cases remain unsolved.
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