Remembering Our Dead

E. Lora Vasallio

E. was shot four times in the street by Vernon Bryan.

The sailor sald he didn't mean to shoot and kill the [woman] dressed in female clothing in Center City. "I'm not a murderer Vernon Bryan, 19, said in a statement to police. "I just wanted to scare [her] so if [she] saw me again [she] would not bother me no more".

Assistant District Attorney Randolph Williams said Bryan, attached to the USS Kitty Hawk, shot [possible deadname] Lora Vassilio, 37, in the back of the head at 12th and Cypress streets on Aug 11.

In a statement to Homicide Detectives Raleigh Witcher and William Schol, Bryan said when he was about to enter a store to buy some food.

Vasallio, wearing a woman's wig, a light blue tank top and a skirt, "brushed into me and was giving me gay look and winking at me." Bryan, who was living on 13th Street near Walnut, and after he walked out of the store with a bag of food, Vasallie, of 19th Street near Thompson, tried "to come on to me. I'm not a homosexual".

"Then [she] just grabbed me...and I hit[her]. [She] tried to run down the street, and I pulled out the gun and started shooting at [her]. It was me telling [her] to get away from me." Williams said the victim was dressed in woman's clothing when police found [her] shortly after midnight.

https://www.newspapers.com/article/philadelphia-daily-news/53037883/

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/10_JeZ7LEIRhvewTCoL5mVkH6MQJzf7fSXl4-P6QJ0v0/edit#gid=0

Report added: 17 Feb 2019. Last updated: 7 Mar 2026

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