Jump to content
  • Welcome to the TransPulse Forums!

    We offer a safe, inclusive community for transgender and gender non-conforming folks, as well as their loved ones, to find support and information.  Join today!

Police Arrest Suspect In Slaying of D.C. Resident Zoe Spears


Carolyn Marie

Recommended Posts

  • Forum Moderator

It looks like I can but I ran a gauntlet of conditions before running into 'turn off private browsing' for free reading. I pulled out at their attitude!

 

Tracy

Link to comment
6 hours ago, tracy_j said:

It looks like I can but I ran a gauntlet of conditions before running into 'turn off private browsing' for free reading. I pulled out at their attitude!

 

Tracy

It is annoying that they block you on just one or two articles.  However, running a newspaper is expensive, and they provide a valuable service.  The loss of news papers  and reliable sources of the news is one of the biggest problems these days.

I'm going to cut and paste the text...

Baltimore man arrested in killing of transgender woman found shot outside D.C.

 
 
Add to list
 
 
 
HNS6GBFJRUI6TBZTJDEHENPTSY.jpg
A still image shows a Dodge Caravan that police say led them to the man they arrested in the killing of a transgender woman in Fairmount Heights, Md. (Prince George’s County police)
By Lynh Bui
July 18 at 2:36 PM

Detectives tasked with solving the killing of Zoe Spears started with only a sliver of evidence: grainy black-and-white images of a Dodge Caravan.

Determined to learn who killed the transgender woman found on a sidewalk June 13 in a D.C. suburb, detectives began piecing together the story of the van.

They asked motor vehicle divisions in the District, Maryland and Virginia for all of their records of Dodge Caravans, netting more than 50,000 results. They called Dodge dealerships and learned the van was a distinct model with a unique silver color. The search narrowed to 3,000.

Detectives then asked police agencies from across the region to return any hits from license plate readers related to the specific model and color of the 2018 van. As they sifted through 30,000 hits, police said, detectives struck gold — or, rather, Dodge “billet silver.”

Investigators, according to charging documents, found only one license plate hit for a matching van in the area of the shooting: a rental out of Baltimore scanned only a half a mile away about two hours before Spears’s slaying.

Five weeks after Spears was fatally shot and 50,000 vans later, Prince George’s County police announced Thursday that they had arrested the man behind the wheel of the Dodge caught on camera.

OE5YTBUO3UI6TNXUAMZVMUBNZY.jpg
Zoe Spears, 23, was fatally shot June 13, and was the second transgender woman killed in Fairmount Heights in three months. (Earline Budd)

Detectives charged Gerardo Thomas, 33, with first-degree murder after he admitted to being at the scene and armed in the van the night of Spears’s killing, said Brian Reilly, head of the criminal investigations division for the county police.

Officials said they still are investigating the motive but do not believe Spears, 23, was targeted because of her gender. Police also said they do not believe the killing was connected to the fatal shooting in the same area three months earlier of Ashanti Carmon, who was friends with Spears.

Carmon, 27, was shot several times, and her body was found about 6:20 a.m. March 30 in the 5000 block of Jost Street, less than half a mile away from where Spears was found.

“He did not mention anything about her being a transgender female,” Reilly said of Thomas, adding that Thomas told police he was in the area at the time but did not tell them he had killed Spears. Asked whether Thomas discussed a reason for his alleged crime, Reilly said, “He gave us no reason.”

Online court records did not list an attorney for Thomas in Spears’s killing, and an attorney’s office representing Thomas in an unrelated case said it did not have information on this week’s arrest.

5JVD5AVJRQI6TBZTJDEHENPTSY.jpg
Gerardo Thomas, 33, of Baltimore, was charged with first-degree murder in Spears’s slaying. (Prince George’s County police)

[Transgender deaths draw attention to lack of LGBTQ resources in Prince George’s]

Police recovered a shotgun Wednesday while executing a search warrant on Thomas’s home in Baltimore and are working to determine if investigators can link the weapon to the shotgun that killed Spears, Reilly said.

Spears, of Northwest Washington, told friends she feared returning to her home along Eastern Avenue at the District-Maryland line because she had witnessed her friend Carmon’s killing in that area. Reilly said police spoke with Spears after Carmon’s death but do not believe Spears was killed because she was a witness. Carmon’s case remains unsolved.

The killings of the two women less than three months apart put the transgender community on edge, with advocates demanding more services to protect the population.

Prince George’s and Fairmount Heights police have stepped up patrols in the area where Carmon and Spears were killed. And advocates have urged transgender people to stay away from the stretch along Eastern Avenue known to be a gathering place for sex workers.

The announcement of Thomas’s arrest was made days after Spears’s funeral.

Spears moved to the District at 19 and signed for her first apartment along Eastern Avenue in Northeast Washington in 2017, according to her memorial program.

With her new independence, Spears worked in retail and hoped to be a lawyer, the program said.

“To know Zoe was to know her loving and caring spirit,” her funeral program said. “There are many who would say that Zoe was one who [loved] life and wanted to make it.”

But friends said Spears also had a difficult life.

Surveillance video from a building across the street captured Spears’s killing, but she is seen on the side of the van farthest from the camera.

Spears is seen approaching the Dodge Caravan from the passenger side and speaking with at least one person through the passenger-side window, according to charging documents.

“Seconds later, what appears to be muzzle flash can be seen and then the silver Dodge Caravan drives off,” charging documents said. Spears collapses, according to the documents.

Though the surveillance video was black and white, police were able to determine the van was silver after reaching a local Dodge dealership. One of the salesmen, a former police officer, noticed that the specific body and features of the car pictured are only associated with that particular color, Reilly said.

After detectives found the van they believed was in the video, they contacted the rental company that surfaced in the license plan scans, which had information showing the car was being rented to Thomas after he had been in a car accident, Reilly said.

The arrest, Reilly said, was due to the “tireless, tedious, hard work” of homicide detectives.

“We handle every single murder the same way,” Reilly said. “We fight along with the family members to bring justice.”

Link to comment
  • Admin

Thanks, Laura!  :goodjob:

 

Carolyn Marie

Link to comment

I really don’t think this is the whole story. There’s just too much that doesn’t add up. He’s not talking or giving a motive for the shooting. Usually killers give a motive once they are caught. She worked retail and didn’t live the lifestyle even though she had a place on a seedy street. She leaned in the passenger side window which implies a passenger. The pace of the interaction was implied as being quick, so that tells me she was killed for being a witness. People don’t usually drive up to a random woman and have a short conversation with her and inexplicably shoot her with a shotgun. Unless it’s a hit. 

 

There’s also a sub culture in the region they don’t mention. It’s common place for people who don’t have cars to flag others down and seek rides, called hacking, basically Uber before there was Uber and definitely cheaper. That’s something the suspect would be interested in if they just had a car accident, a rental van, and needed money. It’s entirely plausible. So was the passenger actually the killer? Was it one of those bait and switch situations where the passenger just killed her and the driver was surprised it happened? He definitely wouldn’t argue with an armed man. Did they threaten the driver and/or promise them protection if they didn’t talk? Was part of the deal to take the shotgun and take the fall if the police came after the driver? I think this was a hit, to take out a witness. Which means that the first killing was probably by the same person and the rabbit hole goes way deeper into the criminal underworld. 

Link to comment
  • Forum Moderator

Thanks Laura.

 

My intention was actually to indicate that I was able to access the article but, principally, as it was not directly relevant here in the UK, declined to jump through the hoops to get it. I fully realise that newspaper companies have problems these days and am not upset that they are looking for different ways of funding. Irritating for me but obviously somewhat more expensive for them.

 

Tracy

 

Link to comment

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Who's Online   3 Members, 0 Anonymous, 123 Guests (See full list)

    • Ivy
    • Wasylyna
    • DeeDee
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
  • Forum Statistics

    • Total Topics
      80.5k
    • Total Posts
      767.2k
  • Member Statistics

    • Total Members
      11,940
    • Most Online
      8,356

    Raelyn
    Newest Member
    Raelyn
    Joined
  • Today's Birthdays

    1. **Angela Charlotte **
      **Angela Charlotte **
    2. Carlie
      Carlie
      (63 years old)
    3. Cbxshawn
      Cbxshawn
      (49 years old)
    4. HannahO
      HannahO
      (31 years old)
    5. JustKatie
      JustKatie
      (40 years old)
  • Posts

    • Ashley0616
      Wow that is a high number for Estradiol good grief! Testosterone levels are better than mine. I don't remember my Estradiol level but testosterone was 80. To me that is really high but it was in the two hundreds the check in before last one. 
    • Ivy
      I don't understand why this would make a difference being a "dad" I mean, as far as how they would grow.
    • Ashley0616
      I don't see why not. I have worn forms since I came out. 
    • MaeBe
      I have never worn breastforms, but I assume as long as they don't aggravate your nipples you could.
    • MaeBe
      Every week I've been excited to take my shot, so it's never been an issue. Yesterday, however, I woke up and started my usual "slow roll" and then suddenly realized I had breakfast plans that I had to rush out the door for. After, it was straight into work calls, and then I got the notification from the doctor about things being too high and all the while my mind had completely slipped that I needed take my shot.   Given that I am not asking for medical advice, but sharing my journey, I will note my results: Estradiol at 447 pg/mL and Testosterone was 23 ng/dL, up and down from 26 pg/mL and 526 ng/dL respectively before treatment. Almost flipped the bit! The doc would like my Estradiol closer to 300 pg/mL, so we'll see what Monday's tests state.   Oh, and I teased the dinner with old soccer teammates and never updated the thread! It went well. There were a couple funny moments. One guy, who I was worried about their response, greeted me with "Hey, you've lost some weight!" 😎 And a friend who lives near me picked me up on the way to dinner exclaimed, after we learned one of the invitees might show up with a date, "Wait! We could have brought women?!" To which I instantly responded, "You kind of did, bringing me!" Everyone got a good laugh out of that. 😁
    • Ashley0616
      To me there isn't that much difference other the measurement, which side the zipper is on and men's pants have bigger pockets. 
    • missyjo
      I hope this is not stupid question..I have yet to start n not sure if doc will approve..but once you start growing buds n such, can you still wear forms to get to the size you were?   I'm a dad, so when I start blossoms they will be smaller for a long time n probably need surgical augmented..that's fine. I don't want to go ddd to aa to ddd..   any ideas?   thank you
    • missyjo
      April sounds fun..I keep some boy jeans to visit mom in..fir now   hugs
    • Ivy
      I like them too.  We had them growing up.  But my father's family were Swedes.
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      Oh my!  I guess it just goes to show how different tastes can be. Since we don't live near the ocean, Seafood is a rare luxury. We absolutely love pickled herring! Especially my husband and my GF, I guess it's a Ferman/Russian cultural thing.  But most of the kids like it too, and a jar wouldn't last in the pantry for long 😆
    • awkward-yet-sweet
      I think the key to that is just not minding eating the same thing repeatedly. Since we produce a lot of our own food here, we end up eating what is in season at the moment. So, when the yellow squash is ripening, we end up fixing squash 20 different ways. When the strawberries are ready, we eat lots of strawberries. It's kind of a different mindset to eat in season when it has become such a part of American culture but the grocery store has everything we want all the time. Like grapes in December.  My family does even things out a little bit by having a greenhouse so we have some fresh things in the winter, but it's not a 100% fix.
    • KathyLauren
      My brothers and I had to eat what was on the plate.  All of it, and nothing else.  Pickiness was not tolerated.  Some of our least favourite were liver and onions, sauerkraut, and especially rollmops (pickled herring).  We finally protested enough to persuade our mother not to serve rollmops, though she kept a jar in the pantry for years afterwards, as a threat if we didn't behave.
    • Carolyn Marie
      I'll go first.  My favorite team is the Yankees.  Loved them since I was a kid.  I was born in NYC so, yeah.  I know everyone loves to hate them, and that's OK.  I just love baseball in general.  It's a game of traditions, strategy, power, grace and skill.   Play Ball!!  ⚾   Carolyn Marie
    • Ashley0616
      I guess you do have a good point. It's just hard to try and not have the same meals over and over again. 
    • Willow
      Hi   I’ll weigh in on being picky about food.  Yes, and I was brought up that way.  We didn’t have to eat everything our parents ate.  They had a number of things they ate that they figured we wouldn’t eat, an acquired taste things or one or the other didn’t like them too.   even as an adult there are many things I won’t eat.  In my defense, there are different things my wife won’t eat.   the weird thing is that after being in E, my tastes have changed.  Sweet, sour, salty or bland, if I eat or drink too much of any one thing and I have to counter act it.   Willow
  • Upcoming Events

Contact TransPulse

TransPulse can be contacted in the following ways:

Email: Click Here.

To report an error on this page.

Legal

Your use of this site is subject to the following rules and policies, whether you have read them or not.

Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
DMCA Policy
Community Rules

Hosting

Upstream hosting for TransPulse provided by QnEZ.

Sponsorship

Special consideration for TransPulse is kindly provided by The Breast Form Store.
×
×
  • Create New...