Brooklyn Lindsey was a girly girl. She loved doing her hair and makeup, and dancing and rapping in front of the mirror. One day, she wanted to be a life coach. She talked about adopting a child once she had her own apartment. She was beloved.

On Tuesday, Lindsey became the 11th known black trans woman to be killed by violence in the US in 2019.

Lindsey, 32, was found early Tuesday morning on the front porch of a vacant home in Kansas City, Missouri. Police Capt. Tim Hernandez told BuzzFeed News there were one or more gunshot wounds on her body and unspecified trauma to her face. It is being treated as a homicide, although the official cause of death won’t come until after the medical examiner looks at Lindsey’s body.



There is no suspect information and no arrests have been made in the case.

Her friend Raven Johnson told BuzzFeed News that Lindsey was well known in the local LGBTQ community, and dreamed of giving back by helping other people to transition.

“She was outgoing, happy-go-lucky. She always liked helping people, doing what she can. She would do anything for anybody,” Johnson.

Like many other black, trans women in the US, she also had difficulty finding housing and employment. At the time of her death, she didn’t have a permanent home and was engaging in survival work, Johnson said.

“No one should have her life taken the way her life was taken,” said Johnson, who found out about Lindsey’s death through friends.

“It’s like, wow, you just feel like you could still possibly see them walking down the street or something.”

The Human Rights Campaign has identified 10 other black trans women who have been killed so far this year. They are:

Dana Martin, 31, Montgomery, Alabama

Jazzaline Ware, Memphis

Ashanti Carmon, 27, Prince George’s County, Maryland

Claire Legato, 21, Cleveland

Muhlaysia Booker, 23, Dallas

Michelle “Tamika” Washington, 40, Philadephia

Paris Cameron, 20, Detroit

Chynal Lindsey, 26, Dallas

Chanel Scurlock, 23, Lumberton, North Carolina

Zoe Spears, 23, Fairmount Heights, Maryland

The average life expectancy of a black trans woman in the US is thought to be 35. Most of this year’s victims were still in their twenties.