Black trans woman Kenji Spurgeon killed in Seattle just after end of Pride Month

Kenji Spurgeon, a 23-year-old Black transgender woman, was shot to death shortly before 12:30 a.m. July 1 in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood, shortly after Pride Month ended.

Her death is just now being widely reported. A candlelight vigil was held last Wednesday at the AIDS Memorial Pathway to honor Spurgeon and other Black trans people lost to gun violence, The Seattle Times reports.

“I think we as a community and as an organization failed Kenji,” Jaelynn Scott, executive director of the Lavender Rights Project, which organized the vigil, told the Times. “Our particular calls to action are that we need the city of Seattle, the state of Washington, and King County [to] look at their budget and ensure that LGBT organizations continue to be funded,” she added.

The investigation is continuing, Seattle police spokesperson Eric Muñoz told the paper, and detectives do not believe Spurgeon was targeted for being trans. Police are also “investigating multiple possibly related incidents involving two males and airguns shooting either pellets or paintballs” around the same location at the time, the Capitol Hill Seattle Blog reports.

Summit Sierra High School, the Seattle charter school that Spurgeon attended, has set up a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for funeral expenses, including the cost of sending her remains home to Alabama.

“Kenji was a bright light in our lives, known for an infectious smile and quick wit,” according to the GoFundMe page. She was a member of the school’s founding class, and “from the very beginning, Kenji stood out, capturing the hearts of teachers and classmates,” the page notes.

“Losing yet another Black trans woman, another trans sibling, to horrific gun violence is infuriating and tragic,” Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Human Rights Campaign’s Transgender Justice Initiative, said in a press release. “Kenji deserved to fully live out her life. She had aspirations and goals, family and friends. At barely 23, Kenji had so much more ahead of her. We must all continue to fight back against the ongoing senseless violence against trans people, especially Black trans women, and particularly against gun violence of any and all kinds.”

Police ask that anyone with information that will be helpful in the investigation call the department’s Violent Crimes Tip Line at (206) 233-5000 or Crime Stoppers at (800) 222-TIPS.