Transgender woman’s death marked ‘high point in a national crisis’

Editor’s note: An earlier version of this article used the incorrect name for the person who died. Law enforcement officials named the victim after a homicide investigation was underway but friends have said that is not the name the victim used. This article has been corrected.

The death last week of a transgender woman in Charlotte from a November assault marked “the high point in a national crisis” around the killing of transgender people of color, the state’s largest LGBTQ advocacy group said.

Sherrell Faulkner, 46, was found Nov. 30 beside a Dumpster at The Plaza and 35th Street suffering from trauma. Faulkner was taken to Carolinas Medical Center, where she died on May 16 from injuries in the attack, police said.

Faulkner was the 11th trans woman homicide victim of 2017 in the U.S., according to Equality NC, the state’s largest lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer advocacy organization.

“We are facing a national epidemic of violence with 11 trans people, many of them transgender people of color, murdered in 2017,” Ames Simmons, Equality NC’s director of transgender policy, said in a statement.

“We are asking leaders and community members at every level to consider both the overt and underlying reasons for these killings,” Simmons said. “We must address the root causes of violence against our community, and we cannot rest until the violence stops.”

“Our hearts are heavy” over Faulkner’s death, Simmons said, while urging anyone with information to call Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police st 704-432-8477 or Crime Stoppers at 704-334-1600.

This story was originally published May 23, 2017 at 7:22 PM.