Suspect Arrested in Shooting of Trans Woman in Detroit

Charges against Deonton A. Rogers include assault and intimidation based on gender.

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

July 29 2018 12:13 PM EST

July 29 2018 12:15 PM EST

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Police have arrested a suspect in an attack on a transgender woman at a Detroit gas station last Monday.

Deonton A. Rogers, 29, was arraigned Saturday on charges of firearm discharge causing a serious injury, felonious assault, possession of a firearm by a felon, child abuse in the fourth degree, and ethnic intimidation based on gender, The Detroit News reports. His bond was set at $2 million.

Police and prosecutors say Rogers approached the 29-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, at a Mobil gas station on Detroit's west side Monday evening, in an incident caught on surveillance video. He "made a lewd remark to her," the News reports. When she told him she was transgender, they argued, and the suspect pulled a gun. They struggled over the weapon, and she was shot in the shoulder, according to police. She is expected to recover.

Rogers fled in his vehicle, leaving a companion at the gas station, but with a child in the back of the vehicle. The child was found unharmed.

"Great work by our team, particularly our 12th precinct special operations ... who relentlessly follow up on tips we were getting from the community," Detroit Police Chief James Craig told the News. "That suspect has been taken into custody without incident."