Suspicious Death of Black Transgender Woman in Newark Raises Troubling Questions
Channel: John Riley
Date: 2020-08-16

WBAI broke this story on its “Out-FM” program this Tuesday:


Ashley Moore, a 26-year-old Black transgender woman, was found dead face down with strangle marks on her neck outside of her residence at the Newark, NJ YWCA on April 1, 2020. On Tuesday’s program, Starlet Carbin, the woman’s mother, will discuss the police indifference to the case, the failure of the city’s medical examiner to release the autopsy report, and officials of the Newark LGBTQ Center will discuss their efforts, along with Ms. Carbin, to obtain a thorough police investigation of the death. The police report, which misgendered Ashley, was not released for 3 months and then only after the Newark LGBT Center pressed the Newark Police Department.  The family’s repeated calls to the Medical Examiner’s office regarding the autopsy report were ignored. Four months after the death, no death certificate has been issued.


 Newark police detective Bullock initially told Ms. Carbins that a doctor at a Newark’s University Hospital where Ms. Moore was transported stated that the cause of Ms. Moore’s death appeared to be a vehicular impact. Later the same detective suggested that she fell from a great height. Yet initial reports by the first police on the scene of the death noted, as Ms. Carbins explained, “Ashley was found outside the YMCA face down on her stomach. And, it states that there were ligature marks [indicating rope or wire abrasions] on her legs. The lower part of her legs, her lower extremities, and neck was grossly swollen and disfigured. “ Ms. Carbins added that Ashley had rectal bleeding.

Yet a witness who lived in the YWCA reported Ashley running down the steps just before she was found dead on the sidewalk. The witness said security in the building was lacking.

In sum, the Police Department's story doesn't add up.

 The family has set up a GoFundMe site to pay for an attorney to press for a full investigation.

The increased occurrence of murders and violence towards of Black transgender people, especially women, has spawned a growing nationwide movement to, among other things, oppose the indifference of the police and medical examiners. This movement has included large rallies of tens of thousands in Brooklyn and several other cities in June under the slogan “Black Trans Lives Matter.”

For more information and photos of Ashley, visit https://www.justiceforashleymoore.org/
For more about Out-FM including past shows go to https://outfm.org