Police in Prince George’s County, Maryland, found a transgender woman fatally shot Thursday night in Fairmount Heights, just blocks away from where another transgender woman was found fatally shot in March.
The two victims apparently knew each other, said a police official. He was not, however, ready to say that the cases are related.
Zoe Spears, 23, of Northeast D.C. was found just before midnight Thursday in the 600 block of 59th Avenue, not far from the Eastern Avenue border between the county and the District.
In late March, 27-year-old Ashanti Carmon was found fatally shot less than a half-mile away, in the 5700 block of Jost Street. Carmon, too, was a transgender woman. The victim’s fiance later told NBC Washington that the Alexandria, Virginia, resident had been out with friends in the hours before she was killed.
“At this point in the investigation — we’re only 14 hours in — there is no direct link that we see at this point,” said police Maj. Brian Reilly, who is commander of the department’s criminal investigation division. “But that is obviously something that we are monitoring very closely to see if there’s any links.”
Earlier in the Carmon case, which is ongoing, authorities interviewed sex workers who congregate around the Eastern Avenue area. “It’s a very tight group of women that work out there, and these two women did in fact know each other,” Reilly said.
Reilly and department spokeswoman Jennifer Donelan urged the public to share what information they might have about the Spears case, particularly if they were in the area from 10 p.m. to midnight Thursday.
“We understand that there’s a lot of talk in the community about this case already,” Donelan said. “We need to hear that information. Our detectives need to hear that information because they’re the ones that can go out and lock these people up. We need people talking to us as much as possible.”
Anyone with information is asked to call Prince George’s police detectives at 301-772-4925.
Anonymous tips can be provided by contacting Crime Solvers online or by calling 866-411-TIPS (8477). You can send a tip via text message by texting “PGPD” plus your message to 274637. Tips can also be provided via the P3 Tips app, available both for Android and for iOS.
Tips leading to arrests and indictments could result in a cash reward.
