Virginia
Investigation continues for murder of 17-year-old trans woman in Hampton, Va.
Man arrested for shooting at party where witnesses say suspect confronted victim
Hampton, Va. police say they are continuing their investigation into the April 2 shooting death of a 17-year-old transgender woman who witnesses say was shot multiple times at a party by the boyfriend of a young woman who was arguing with a friend of the victim.
Police said the victim, who friends have identified as Hampton resident Ariyanna Mitchell, was pronounced dead at the scene shortly after 2:00 a.m. on April 2 at a residence on the 500 block of Wine Street in Hampton.
A statement released by Hampton police says the investigation into the incident led to the arrest on April 9 of Jimmy Leshawn Williams, 19, on charges of one count of Murder and one count of Use of Firearm in Commission of a Felony in connection with Mitchell’s murder. The statement says Williams, a resident of Nofolk, Va., was taken into custody in Chesapeake, Va.
Local TV station WAVY 10 reported it spoke with a friend of Mitchell who said the shooting stemmed from a fight at a party in Norfolk earlier in the night of the shooting between the friend and Williams’ girlfriend.
“{Williams’ girlfriend] was going to get her boyfriend to shoot me and everybody in this house,” WAVY quoted the friend as saying. According to WAVY, the friend said the bullets fired by Williams were meant for her, not Mitchell.
The TV news station further reports that court documents disclose that a witness told police Williams arrived at the house in Hampton where the party was taking place in his girlfriend’s car and asked Mitchell whether she was involved in a fight involving his girlfriend. The witness reportedly told police Mitchel said she was involved. Other press reports have cited sources saying Mitchell intervened to help protect her friend, who got into an altercation with Williams’ girlfriend.
“Paperwork says the witness told police Williams asked if Mitchell was a boy or a girl,” WAVY TV news reports in one of its stories on the incident. “Documents say Mitchell replied a boy, and that’s when Williams shot Mitchell multiple times,” WAVY reports.
Friends of Mitchell have said she identified as a girl.
An earlier police statement released at the time the murder occurred, which appealed to the public for information about the then unidentified suspect, identifies victim Mitchell as a “17-year-old male” and does not release Mitchell’s name.
Hampton police spokesperson Sgt. Reggie Williams told the Washington Blade it was the victim’s family that identified Mitchell as a male.
“Because the victim is a juvenile, we don’t identify the victim in our press releases,” Williams said. “But according to the family, the victim is a 17-year-old male,” he said.
Williams said copies of the police report for the incident would not be available at this time because the investigation is continuing.
“The motive and circumstances surrounding this incident remain under investigation and there is no further information to release at this time,” the earlier police statement released at the time of the murder says.
An obituary for Mitchell posted on the website of the ME Fisher Funeral Home in Newport News, Va., which handled funeral arrangements for Mitchell, appears to contradict the police claim that Mitchell’s parents identified Mitchel as a male. The obituary, which presumably was prepared from information provided by Mitchell’s family, refers to Mitchell as a woman and uses her female first name.
“Ariyanna was a student in her junior year at the East End Academy under the direction of Mrs. Ruby Gilliam, CEO,” the obituary says. “She was an avid member of the Triple E (Electra Eagles Elite) Dance Academy under the guidance of Mrs. Pandora Carter,” the obituary continues. “Ariyanna loved dancing and styling hair. She was truly unique, funny, and loved by everyone.”
The obituary identifies Mitchell’s parents, Kashunda Mitchell and Marvin Chadwick, and six siblings along with grandparents, aunts, and seven cousins as among Mitchell’s surviving family members.
However, the obituary, while using female pronouns and using her chosen first name of Aryanna, also uses in its headline a male first name.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group, said in a statement that Mitchell’s death marked at least the 11th violent murder of a transgender or gender non-conforming person in the U.S. in 2022. The HRC statement says the group was aware of at least 57 transgender or gender non-conforming deaths in 2021 due to violence, which it says was the largest number of fatal trans violence incidents recorded in a single year since it began tracking anti-trans violence in 2013.
“We say ‘at least’ because too often these deaths go unreported – or misreported,” the HRC statement says, adding that the number of trans murders could be far greater than the numbers reported by law enforcement agencies.
Virginia
Freddie’s to hold ‘Love Fest’ Drag Story Hour after bomb threat
Arlington gay bar receives outpouring of support from community
Freddie’s Beach Bar and Restaurant, the Arlington, Va. LGBTQ establishment, has announced it is hosting a “Love Fest” celebration on Saturday, May 4 that will include a Drag Queen Story Hour brunch in response to a bomb threat that interrupted the first Drag Story Hour event it hosted four weeks earlier.
“Help us stop the hate,” a flier announcing the May 4 Love Fest event says. “Join us for our next story time brunch, dressed in your favorite Rainbow/Hippie outfit,” the flier says. “Carry your homemade signs of support.”
Freddie Lutz, Freddie’s Beach Bar owner, said a portion of the proceeds of the event will be donated to local LGBTQ charities.
Lutz has reported that separate email messages with a bomb threat were sent to the Freddie’s in the Crystal City section of Arlington, the Freddie’s Beach Bar in Rehoboth Beach, Del., and to him personally with a threat targeting his and his husband’s house located near the Freddie’s in Crystal City.
He said the first threat arrived about an hour before the April 6 Drag Story Hour was scheduled to begin, with drag queen Tara Hoot scheduled to read children’s stories to what Lutz said was a large turnout of kids with their parents and family members. After asking all patrons to exit the bar into its rear outdoor seating area and parking lot, Arlington police conducted a thorough search of the premises with a bomb sniffing dog and found no trace of a bomb.
All customers, including parents and their children, were invited back inside and the show took place as planned, with drag performer Hoot describing the event as a display of “fun and love and joy.”
Lutz has said the May 4 Love Fest event, which is scheduled to begin at 11 a.m., is intended to show the community and those responsible for bomb threats at many of the past Drag Story Hour events, that these events enjoy strong community support.
“They’re trying to scare us and intimidate us, and I just don’t think as a community we can allow that to happen,” he told WUSA 9 TV News. “It emboldens me to just carry on,” he said.
He told the Washington Blade he and his staff are honored that they have received an outpouring of support from community organizations, other nearby businesses, and government officials.
The Arlington County Board, which is the governing body of the county, voted unanimously on April 9 to approve a statement supporting Freddie’s Beach Bar and the LGBTQ community in response to the bomb threat incident.
“Arlington County and the County board unequivocally support the LGBTQ+ community,” the statement says. “Arlington County Police Department’s swift response ensured the safety of patrons and staff, and the fortitude of Freddie and drag queen Tara Hoot allowed the show to go on,” the statement continues.
“With protests, threats, and violence targeting the LGBTQ+ community – and drag shows in particular – on the rise across the country, expressions of hatred and bigotry have absolutely no place in our community, and the Arlington County Board condemns these threats of violence and attempted intimidation of our community,” it says.
Virginia
Norfolk transgender resource center vandalized
Anti-trans graffiti spraypainted onto Southeastern Transgender Resource Center’s windows
The Norfolk Police Department is investigating the vandalism of a transgender resource center’s building.
Tarena Williams, founder of the Southeastern Transgender Resource Center, told WAVY that someone spraypainted anti-trans graffiti on the windows of her organization’s offices on Sunday or Monday morning. Williams told the Hampton Roads television station that seeing the messages was like “walking into hell.”
“I opened up STRC, even the Lamina House,” she told WAVY. “I opened up that to get away from those types of words. This is a place you can come to get away from that, but to see that sprayed over the window. It’s kind of like you are walking into hell. … To be honest, I was like in shock.”
Authorities are investigating the vandalism.
Virginia
Bomb threat interrupts Drag Story Hour event at Arlington gay bar
Event resumed after police, bomb sniffing dog search of Freddie’s Beach Bar
A Drag Story Hour event hosted by the Arlington, Va. gay bar and restaurant Freddie’s Beach Bar was interrupted by a bomb threat sent by email on Saturday, April 6, requiring parents and their children attending the event to exit the bar into its rear outdoor seating area and parking lot until police and a bomb sniffing dog searched the premises and found no trace of a bomb.
Freddie Lutz, owner of Freddie’s Beach Bar, located in the Crystal City section of South Arlington, said the threatening email from an unidentified sender came during the first time he has hosted a Drag Story Hour event, which includes a drag performer reading children’s stories to children accompanied by their parents.
“We had a lot of neighborhood families with kids and babies and one grandmother in there,” Lutz told the Washington Blade. “It was a great turnout, and we had to push them all out to the back parking lot,” he said. “And they waited, which I thanked them for, until the coast was clear. And then they came back in.”
Lutz said that two protesters opposed to the drag event showed up outside Freddie’s on Saturday, at the time of the Drag Story Hour event. He said drag performer Tara Hoot, who conducted the Drag Story Hour at Freddie’s, told him before the event started that some of her previous Drag Story Hour events have been targeted with bomb threats and protesters.
“So, we were kind of prepared or I guess you could say psychologically prepared for it,” Lutz said. “And sure enough, we got an email threatening the bar and also me personally at my residence, which was a little unsettling,” he said, adding that nothing was found at his nearby South Arlington house.
In response to an inquiry from the Blade, Arlington police released a brief statement about the incident.
‘At approximately 11:15 a.m. on April 6, police were dispatched to the report of a bomb threat emailed to a business,” the statement says. “Responding officers made contact with the occupants, conducted a sweep of the business and found no evidence of criminal activity located at the restaurant during the sweep,” it says. “The investigation into the threat is ongoing.”
Hoot, who has been conducting Drag Story Hour events in the D.C. area for more than a year, said as many as eight of her past events have been targeted by hostile protesters or bomb threats, although no bombs have ever been found at the locations where the events have taken place.
Hoot said like protesters targeting her previous events, the two protesters at the Freddie’s event, a man and a woman, cited their religious believes as their reason for opposing the Drag Story Hour event.
“They were spewing religious hate,” Hoot told the Blade. “They were trying to shame parents for bringing their kids.”
Hoot said she includes in the performances songs of interest to children and reads from children’s books such as the Very Hungry Caterpillar, a book that talks about bravery and other positive themes. “And then I give them bubbles and rainbow ribbons and we all color together,” she said. “It’s just fun and love and joy.”
Started in San Francisco in 2015 by an organization called Drag Story Hour, the story hour events have taken place across the country in libraires, bookstores, and venues such as restaurants and bars.
“In spaces like this, kids are able to see people who defy rigid gender restrictions and imagine a world where everyone can be their authentic selves,” the organization says on its website.
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