Black Trans Woman Ashley Burton Fatally Shot in Atlanta

Black transgender woman Ashley Burton, a 37-year-old hairstylist and makeup artist in Atlanta, was shot to death at her apartment complex last week.

Burton’s body was found shortly after 4:30 a.m. April 11 in the breezeway of her building, according to local media. Police and her loved ones say she likely knew her killer.

“She ran out of the house, hollering and screaming, beating on doors,” her cousin Ivory Carter told Atlanta TV station WXIA. “This got to be personal. You shot her in her house, then you followed her outside and shot her.”

Burton and Carter grew up together in South Carolina. “She was a sweetheart,” Carter said. “She wasn’t nasty. She wasn’t disrespectful. She just wanted to live her life.”

Carter added, “I’m tired of all these incidents with transgender women just being pushed up under the rug. We are human beings.”

Patrick Burton, the victim’s brother, told Atlanta station WAGA that “Ashley was very loved all the way across the board, like from South Carolina to Atlanta.”

He said he doesn’t think her trans identity had anything to do with her death. “The way my sibling moved in life, it was … take it or leave it. ‘This is how I am,’” he said. “You can respect it or neglect it, but Ashley put it out there and let that person know. It’s not going to be a secret.”

Burton is at least the ninth trans, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming person to die by violence in the U.S. this year. There are likely many more victims, as some are deadnamed or misgendered by police and media, or their deaths not reported at all.

“I am deeply saddened to hear about the death of Ashley Burton, yet another trans sister we have lost to violence,” Victoria Kirby York, director of public policy and programs at the National Black Justice Coalition, said in a press release. “I agree with Ashley’s cousin; we are tired of the murders of trans women being pushed under the rug. They deserve justice, and their family, friends, and loved ones deserve closure. Local law enforcement must make solving the murders of trans people and protecting the community a priority. Our trans brothers and sisters deserve to live their lives without fear.”

Atlanta police ask that anyone with information about the crime call them at (404) 577-8477.