News4’s Mauricio Casillas spoke to an LGBTQ advocate and friend of the victim, who identified as a transgender woman.
A woman was found dead from a stab wound in Northeast D.C. on Saturday, police say.
The victim was 36-year-old Jasmine "Star" Mack. Friends of Mack confirmed that she identified as a transgender woman.
Officers found Mack while doing a welfare check at the 2000 block of Gallaudet Street NE in the Ivy City neighborhood at about 3 a.m. She was found suffering from a stab wound in the thigh, according to a D.C. police release.
Mack was pronounced dead at the scene by D.C. Fire and EMS. She was transported to the Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.
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News of Mack’s death shocked her friend and transgender rights activist Earline Budd. Budd said she last saw her around Thanksgiving.
“You know there has to be some way that there can be peace, and the violence must stop. The violence has to stop, we are killing us,” Budd said.
Budd said she and others are planning on holding a vigil for Mack later in the week.
The incident is being investigated as a homicide. It has not been classified as a hate crime, according to the police report.
D.C. police are offering up to $25,000 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction in this case.
