Remembering Our Dead

TDoR 2024 / 2024 / July / 01 / Kenji Zemonta Spurgeon

Kenji Zemonta Spurgeon

Age 23

1 Jul 2024
Seattle, Washington (USA)
Shot

TDoR list ref: tgeu/tdor2024/1-Jul-2024/Kenji Zemonta Spurgeon

Kenji was shot in a restaurant parking lot just after midnight on Monday 1st July.

[Editor's Note: Gender neutral pronouns are used in this report as although it is known that Kenji identified as trans, there are conflicting reports on whether she identified as a trans person or a trans woman or some other identity]

A [person] was reported shot to death just after midnight in an E Pine parking lot.

In a chaotic sequence starting just before 12:30 AM Monday, police responded to reports of gunfire in the parking lot of Teto’s Cantina, the former Rancho Bravo restaurant at the corner of 10th and Pine across from Cal Anderson Park.

Arriving officers searched the lot before reporting a woman down at the scene and at least one person taken into custody amid crowds of people in the neighborhood during Pride festivities, according to East Precinct radio updates.

Seattle Fire was called to the scene but reported the victim had died of [their] injuries. UPDATE: “Crews attempted lifesaving efforts for an adult [person] but were unsuccessful,” SFD reports. “[They were] declared deceased at the scene.”

Homicide detectives were called the scene. Police were collecting evidence including video from the scene as E Pine was closed to traffic during the response. Police were also continuing to search for possible suspects reported leaving the scene. There were no additional reported arrests.

The Seattle Police Department has not provided details of the shooting or confirmed the killing. Q13 and KING are also reporting the deadly shooting but providing an E Pike location that differs from overnight emergency radio updates.

Kenji’s Black Trans life mattered and we mourn the absences and the invisibility of what we can not know. We mourn the silence of her story that has taken 18 days to reach our community. We mourn the ways gun violence took a 23 year old’s life, full of promise, and we bear the weight of knowing these tragedies are not Washington state specific.

When Kenji’s former teacher Malia Burns says, “Kenji was a bright light in our lives, known for an infectious smile and quick wit. Kenji had an extraordinary ability to uplift everyone around with laughter, a joke, a song, or a dance.”, we know Kenji was a ki. Though many of us have not met Kenji in the flesh, we feel the power of her light even through photos and the stories shared by her loved ones.

We know that young people, especially Black trans young people are the key to overturning a world riddled with anti-Blackness, transphobia, misogynoir, and premature death. So we honor the lives Kenji’s touched, and we grieve the future possibilities of the new world Kenji may have ushered us into if given the opportunity at life.

Many of us dream of the PNW to be a safe haven, of care and refuge for Black trans life, and we hope that it will one day become that for all our community. Rest well, Kenji.