“[Jordan Cofer’s friends] felt it was important for his true identity to be accurately reported in the press, without sensationalistic or political sentiments.”

The slain sibling of the Dayton shooter was not his sister, as reported, but rather his brother.

Writing for Splinter, journalist Katelyn Burns reports that Jordan Cofer was a 22-year-old transgender man. Although he was not out to his family — including his brother, who carried out the mass shooting on Sunday, Aug. 4, in Dayton, Ohio, that left Cofer and eight others dead along with 27 wounded — Cofer had disclosed his trans identity to “people he trusted,” an anonymous friend said.

“Jordan was my closest friend,” the source told Burns. “He identified with he/him pronouns to people he trusted and knew would support him. Jordan was probably one of the sweetest people you would ever meet, a true saint, but he was also very scared constantly. He tried to give the best to everyone.”

Another unnamed friend of Cofer’s said that they “do not believe that his gender identity had played a part in his death” — as opposed to, say, the perpetrator of Saturday’s mass shooting in El Paso, Texas, who held violent white supremacist beliefs and intentionally targeted Latinx people when enacting those beliefs — and Burns notes how easy it might be to politicize Cofer’s trans status in the wake of his death. Still, she says, it’s important to set the record straight.

“The trans community also has a right to account for its dead,” Burns writes. “Everyone who spoke with Splinter for this story felt it was important for his true identity to be accurately reported in the press, without sensationalistic or political sentiments.”

Read the full report right here.

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