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Arrest Made in Philadelphia Murder of Trans Woman Maya Young

Arrest Made in Philadelphia Murder of Trans Woman Maya Young

Maya Young
Maya Young

Police have not revealed a motive for why Tiffany E. Floyd allegedly stabbed the 25-year-old transgender woman to death.

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A 24-year-old woman was arrested Tuesday in connection with the stabbing death of 25-year-old Maya Young, a transgender woman who died after she was attacked on the streets of Philadelphia last month, according to The Philadelphia Inquirer.

Tiffany E. Floyd is being held without bond on murder and conspiracy charges, and police told the paper more people would be arrested shortly.

On February 20, Young was found on the street suffering from multiple stab wounds to her neck and chest. She died of those injuries after being taken to a nearby hospital shortly after midnight. Young is at least the third transgender woman to be killed in Philadelphia alone over the past year, according to the paper. Kiesha Jenkins, 22, was robbed, beaten and shot to death in October, while London Kiki Chanel, 21, was stabbed to death in the city last May.

Floyd had a history of arrests for prostitution, and was on probation for those charges at the time of her arrest, The Inquirer reported.

While hate crimes against LGBT people were down as a whole in 2014, 2015 proved to be the most deadly on record for transgender people in the U.S. At least 21 transgender people were killed in the U.S. last year -- the vast majority of them women of color. This total does not include transgender people who were misgendered by police or media in death, those whose deaths went unreported, or those trans people who took their own lives last year.

Young is among at least four transgender people already killed this year.

Nellie Fitzpatrick, director of Philadelphia's Office of LGBT Affairs, lamented Young's murder and the lack of opportunities for transgender individuals. "

Maya's name and memory now join an ever-growing list of trans-identified people who have lost their lives at far too young an age to violence," Fitzpatrick told Philadelphia TV station WCAU.

Watch WCAU's intial report announcing Young's murder below.

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