Chicago Man Harassed, Then Shot Trans Woman

A Chicago man is accused of shooting at a trans woman and killing her brother last month.

Humboldt Park resident Kortney Darby is alleged to have driven past the 29-year-old woman, whose name has not been released, and her 23-year-old brother Johnny Parris before shouting "get the f**k off my block" and opening fire according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

According to prosecutors, Darby had a nine-millimeter handgun with him and shot repeatedly at the pair. Parris was hit in the side and collapsed. The woman was also struck but managed to hide in her car while police say Darby continued firing at her. Police found nine shell casings.

After Darby left, police say the woman -- aided by a trauma nurse who happened to be nearby -- tried to help Parris. He was taken to a hospital and pronounced dead.

The incident occurred around 2 a.m. on August 3. Cook County prosecutors also alleged the woman is a sex worker.

Police cameras captured a vehicle leaving the scene that matched a truck owned by Darby, and the surviving victim identified Darby in a photo lineup.

Darby's family said that he had never expressed hostility to trans people before, and that police may have arrested the wrong person.

"He's been working, he has custody of his son ... I don't understand this. He's a great dad," Darby's brother told the Sun-Times. The newspaper, which continues to deadname trans people, also misgendered the unnamed trans woman.

The weekend of the shooting was particularly violent for Chicago, with seven killed and 46 injured across multiple incidents.

While Republicans often claim that Chicago's gun control laws are the toughest in the nation and the city is a "murder capital," neither claim is true.

Chicago's gun laws are often cited as the toughest in the country, but California's are actually more strict. While the Windy City bans assault weapons, a ban on handguns was overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2008. The city's gun registry was suspended in 2013. Meanwhile, most of the gun violence in Chicago is committed with weapons brought from states with far weaker restrictions.

Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot, a lesbian, recently debunked those myths in response to a series of tweets from NRA-funded Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

Meanwhile, trans people have faced an epidemic of violence in recent years, particularly trans women of color. There were 26 known killings of trans people last year, most of them Black transgender women. There have been at least 16 killings of Black trans women so far this year.

That doesn't account for victims who survived, such as the woman injured in the August 3 shooting.

RELATED | El Paso and Dayton Remind Us Gun Control Is a Queer Issue