Remembering Our Dead

TDoR 2020 / 2020 / May / 27 / Tony McDade

Tony McDade

Age 38

27 May 2020
Tallahassee, Florida (USA)
Shot

TDoR list ref: tgeu/27-May-2020/Tony McDade

Tony was shot by a police officer. The Florida Police Department claimed that he pulled a gun on police and had a "bloodied knife", but eyewitness accounts contradict this.

The official police report into the fatal shooting of Back trans man Tony McDade has been thrown into doubt as new eyewitnesses accounts emerge.

Tony McDade was shot and killed by an unnamed white police officer in Tallahassee, north Florida, on May 27. He died shortly afterwards in hospital, his death marking Florida’s third fatal police shooting in the last two months.

Local news, which along with the Florida Police Department initially misgendered McDade, reported that he was a suspect in a fatal stabbing.

Speaking at a news briefing last week, Tallahassee Police chief Lawrence Revell said that the suspect fled the scene on foot and was confronted by officers on nearby Holton Street in the Leon apartment complex.

“Our officer called out, ‘Shots fired.’ He said over the radio that the suspect had pointed a gun at him. The suspect was in possession of a handgun, and a bloody knife was found at the scene of the stabbing.”

However, multiple reports by local news said that McDade was unarmed and had not been warned before the officer began shooting. This is corroborated by those at the scene, who say the police never announced themselves as police before firing.

Tony seems to have committed what is known as “suicide by cop" to avoid being sent back to prison.

Tony McDade, a black trans man was shot and killed in an apparent attempt to end his life. McDade a twice-convicted felon had been beaten by five men took revenge by killing one of them. To avoid going back to prison Tony committed what is known as “suicide by cop.”

This is all well documented.

We still don’t know the name of the officer who shot McDade or what happened just before he was killed. One witness says that a man jumped out of his car and shot him without identifying himself as law enforcement.

Crucially, we don’t know if the officer who shot McDade was prone to preemptive violence or if he had ever been indicted for murder. The Tallahassee Police Department is keeping that information from the public using a hijacked version of a victim’s rights law.

Cops who kill in Florida and North Dakota can now keep their names from the public with “Marsy’s Law”. All that Florida and North Dakota GOP needed to do to protect their killer cops was the deletion of a couple of words.

And according to Pro Publica, the law has increasingly been co-opted by police nationwide. It got on Florida’s ballot in 2018 after being introduced by a sheriff and revised with the help of two statewide law enforcement associations. Officers say it allows them to claim victim status in use-of-force cases where they say the suspect was the aggressor.

A Tallahassee police officer brought the problems with Marsy’s Law to light in May when he claimed victimhood status after fatally shooting Tony McDade, a Black transgender man who allegedly stabbed a neighbor’s son to death before pointing a gun at the officer.

On Tuesday 2nd June 2020, thousands rallied in front of the Stonewall Inn to demand an end to the killing of black trans people in the US.

Thousands out in front of Stonewall Inn, the birthplace of the modern LGBTQ+ movement, demanding justice for Tony McDade and Nina Pop. Black lives matter. Black queer lives matter. Black trans lives matter.

The state, fosters systemic racism, is responsible.#BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/8OByvAhfYY
— Left Voice (@left_voice) June 2, 2020

I’m not sure who took this pic of me. But Thank you. This is truly a historical movement and I 🙏🏾 we see change for the better!✊🏾✊🏽✊🏼✊🏿https://t.co/TwnA4iKwWj #BlackLivesMatter #BLM #NoJusticeNoPeace #BlackTransLivesMatter #TonyMcDade #GeorgeFloyd #BreonnaTaylor pic.twitter.com/saGYF2c5p2
— Naiquan (@CosPlayNay) June 7, 2020