Karlota Gómez Sanchez
Age 196 Jun 2011
Santurce, San Juan, Puerto Rico (USA)
Shot
TDoR list ref: tgeu/6-Jun-2011/Karlota (Carlos Alfredo Gomez Pena)
Karlota was killed on Calle Condado in what seems to have been a targeted execution.
Her body was found with three bullet wounds at an intersection in San Juan's Santurce district.
Before she was killed, two people in an old car had approached several trans women to enquire whether they had seen Karlota. One of the trans women reported that one of the individuals showed a firearm to those they asked. None of them called the police.
Primera Hora reported that Puerto Rico Police Cmdr. Orlando Meléndez identified the victim as [deadname] Gómez Peña. Meléndez told the newspaper that the victim was "dressed as a woman." Pedro Julio Serrano of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force identified the victim as Karlota Gómez Sánchez.
"What we have is [the victim] approached a vehicle and there were shots," Orlando Meléndez told a local radio station.
LGBT activist Ada Conde told Primera Hora that local authorities should investigate Gómez's death as a hate crime.
"It is imperative that in this case the authorities follow Attorney General Obdulio Meléndez's order that prosecutors investigate the hate angle in all crimes committed against any member of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transsexual and transgender communities," added Serrano in a statement. "On the other hand, we have to elevate our voices on what is clearly an epidemic of homophobic and transphobic violence."
TvT partner organization TV Mex - Travestis Mexico, Summary 2011; El Nuevo Dia, online portal, 6.6..2011
https://www.edgemedianetwork.com/story.php?120564
