Trans Woman Murdered in Jacksonville Is 12th This Year

Antash'a English was shot to death Friday.

Trudy Ring

Trudy Ring is The Advocate’s senior politics editor and copy chief. She has been a reporter and editor for daily newspapers and LGBTQ+ weeklies/monthlies, trade magazines, and reference books. She is a political junkie who thinks even the wonkiest details are fascinating, and she always loves to see political candidates who are groundbreaking in some way. She enjoys writing about other topics as well, including religion (she’s interested in what people believe and why), literature, theater, and film. Trudy is a proud “old movie weirdo” and loves the Hollywood films of the 1930s and ’40s above all others. Other interests include classic rock music (Bruce Springsteen rules!) and history. Oh, and she was a Jeopardy! contestant back in 1998 and won two games. Not up there with Amy Schneider, but Trudy still takes pride in this achievement.

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Trudy Ring

June 04 2018 9:00 PM EST

June 05 2018 1:40 AM EST

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Antash'a English, a 38-uear-old transgender woman living in Jacksonville, Fla., was shot to death in the city Friday, becoming the 12th known transgender homicide victim this year.

On a city street, English was shot in the abdomen by someone firing from a vehicle, The Florida Times-Union reports. She was still alive when police found her about 3:45 a.m. Friday, but she died later at a local hospital.

Some early media reports and the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office misgendered and deadnamed English, but a friend of hers told a local news program that she was an "unapologetic" transgender woman.

"She was an unapologetic, bold, and loyal person," Taliyah Smith told First Coast News, a program of TV stations WTLV and WJXX. "We met years ago while at a gay pageant. We both were entertainers." English, who won many pageants, performed regularly at InCahoots, a nightclub in Jacksonville's Riverside neighborhood, Smith said.

The sheriff's office was previously criticized for misgendering and deadnaming Celine Walker, a trans woman shot to dead at a Jacksonville motel in February. "The name and gender used for the deceased victim are the ones found on the most current form of government-issued identification," sheriff's office spokeswoman Melissa Bujeda told First Coast News.