February 11, 2012
D.C. Man Charged in Fatal Stabbing of Transgender Woman
Michael K. Lavers READ TIME: 1 MIN.
A D.C. man faces a second-degree murder while armed charge in connection with the fatal stabbing of a transgender woman at a bus stop earlier this month.
Gary Niles Montgomery, 55, allegedly stabbed Deoni Jones in the head at a bus stop on the 4900 block of East Capitol Street, N.E., in Benning Heights shortly before 8:15 p.m. on Feb. 2. Jones, 23, was transported to a local hospital where doctors pronounced her dead several hours later.
Police took Montgomery into custody around 2:25 p.m. on Friday.
Authorities have yet to identify a possible motive, but Jones' death is the latest in a series of attacks against trans people in the District over the last several months.
Lashai Mclean, 23, was killed in East Corner in July, while off-duty D.C. police officer Kenneth Furr allegedly fired shots into a car in which transgender women had been sitting after he fought with them. Darryl Willard, 20, faces an attempted murder charge for allegedly shooting Gima Brown in the neck on Sept. 12.
Gaurav Gopalan, 35, was found dead on a sidewalk in Columbia Heights two days earlier.
A 2011 study from the National Center for Transgender Equality and the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force found that 61 percent of trans or gender non-conforming people have been physically assaulted. The National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs noted in its 2010 annual report that trans people are twice as likely to experience violence or discrimination as non-trans white people.
Based in Washington, D.C., Michael K. Lavers has appeared in the New York Times, BBC, WNYC, Huffington Post, Village Voice, Advocate and other mainstream and LGBT media outlets. He is an unapologetic political junkie who thoroughly enjoys living inside the Beltway.
