Police in Florida have arrested a man they say killed London Price, a 26-year-old Black transgender woman, in front of her grandmother last week.
Anthony Quinn Peyton, 25, was taken into custody by police on Monday and charged with the murder of Price on October 23, according to jail records seen by local ABC affiliate WPLG. Peyton. Price was pistol-whipped and shot to death in front of her grandmother outside a home in northwest Miami-Dade County.
Relatives of Price earlier confirmed to WPLG that Peyton was her former boyfriend who had recently moved back in with Price and that the pair had been experiencing difficulties recently. Nedra Allen described her niece as “always beautiful and pretty” with a desire to help others, which fears might have led to her murder.
“She’ll give you the shirt off her back, and I think that’s kind of what put her in this situation to get her hurt,” Allen said, referring to Peyton’s return to living with Price.
“London had so many friends and family members who loved her but are now filled with grief following her tragic killing,” Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative at the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement last week. “We must stop the epidemic of violence targeting transgender and non-binary people and the national crisis of gun violence. This crisis is especially treacherous for Black and Brown transgender women.”
Price is one of more than 20 trans, nonbinary, or gender-nonconforming people who have died by violence in the U.S. this year. Most of them have been women of color.
Since it began tracking violent deaths of trans people in 2013, HRC has found that 69.5 percent of those victims were killed with a gun. Gun violence was also the cause of death for 57.5 percent of those who were killed by a current or former intimate partner, and 76 percent of Black trans women.
The callous and brutal nature of Price’s murder led Allen to describe her killer as an “animal” to WPLG last week.
“I want justice to be served for London,” she said.
If you or someone you know is affected by domestic violence, there is help available. The National Domestic Violence Hotline can be reached at 800-799-7233. Other resources can be found here.