Mia Green Is 29th Known Trans Person Killed in 2020

The cycle of violence against the transgender community continued Monday with the horrific, broad-daylight killing of Mia Green in Philadelphia. Green, 29, a Black transgender woman, is thought to be the 29th transgender or nonbinary person violently killed so far this year in the United States and Puerto Rico. The number killed in just nine months already surpasses the known total killed for 2019.

"Mia was a person who mattered, and she did not deserve to have her life stolen from her," Tori Cooper, Human Rights Campaign's director of community engagement for the transgender justice initiative, said in a statement. "Too often, we see a mix of toxic masculinity, misogyny, racism and transphobia play a strong factor in the deaths of Black trans women like Mia. As we remember her, we must continue to affirm that Black Trans Lives matter."

"This latest act of violence against a member of our community is a somber reminder of the epidemic of violence against trans individuals," the Office of LGBT Affairs said in a statement. "It is a crisis that cannot be allowed to persist any further."

Green was shot and killed Monday morning in west Philadelphia. According to CBSN Philadelphia, police conducted a traffic stop on a vehicle that allegedly ran a stop sign at 41st Street and Westminster Avenue. Police say the driver, Abudullah-Ibn El-Amin Jaamia, 28, exited the vehicle and told them a person in his car was shot. Inside the 2016 Jeep Wrangler officers discovered Green in the front passenger seat suffering from gunshot wounds to the arm and neck. She was rushed to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center where she was pronounced dead a short time later. Jaamia was taken into custody and charged with murder of Green along with other related charges.

Green's death provided a sad reminder of the escalating violence against the transgender community. Her death, believed to be the 29th violently killing of a trans or nonbinary person this year in the country and Puerto Rico, adds to the still-rising toll that has already surpassed the total for the entirety of 2019.

"When is society going to realize that our deaths are because of the stigma that they attach to us?" Deja Lynn Alvarez, a local trans activist, told The Philadelphia Inquirer. "They keep wanting to blame it on us as trans people, but we're not the ones putting out hate, stigma and bigotry. It's society. I don't deserve to be murdered because of who I am."

Alvarez told NBC10 Philadelphia the Green and Jaamia knew each other and were involved in some for a relationship, although she provided no further details. For now, she is mourning the loss of another member of the trans community to violence.

"We're a family so when this happens to one of us, we all feel it in a very profound way," Alvarez said.

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