CLEVELAND, Ohio – A 45-year-old transgender woman shot and killed Friday will be remembered for her devotion to hair styling and being a loving and caring partner and friend, despite battling drug addiction for most of her life, her longtime partner said. Phylicia Mitchell died Friday after being shot in the chest about 6 p.m. outside her home on West 112th Street near Detroit Avenue, in the city’s Edgewater neighborhood. She is the first transgender person killed in Cleveland since Brandi Bledsoe in October 2016. There were 23 transgender people killed that year in the U.S. and 28 in 2017, according to the Human Rights Campaign. “She was a good person, even though she had a drug problem, she’s a good person,” her partner Shane Mitchell said Monday. “She got mixed up with the wrong people.” Mitchell said he believes the slaying was drug-related, but investigators have not yet offered a motive. A Cleveland police dispatch report says there was known drug activity at Phylicia Mitchell’s home. Officers found her dead on the living room floor with one arm slumped on the couch, police reports say. Shane Mitchell said he and Phylicia always considered themselves husband and wife, despite never officially getting married. They were unable to do so for years until the Supreme Court legalized gay marriage in 2015. Phylicia legally changed her name on May 31, 2017 to take Mitchell’s last name and they held a small celebration at a local church. “It was like a mock wedding,” Mitchell said. “We had a few friends come, some of her family. It was awesome.” Shane Mitchell said he met Phylicia some three decades ago in downtown Cleveland after Phylicia ran away from what he called a “dysfunctional” family in Pittsburgh. The two quickly hit it off and began a relationship that spanned the rest of Phylicia’s life. He said she always believed she was born as a woman, and that he treated her as his girlfriend and later his wife from the beginning. Part of the reason Phylicia ran away from home is because her family was unable to accept her as a woman, her partner said. Shane Mitchell said friends initially were not supportive of the two being together, and that led to fights with those friends. But over time Phylicia won them over with her funny, sweet personality, Shane Mitchell said. “Everyone loved her,” he said. “My nieces and nephews opened up to her so much. She was just so funny and kind…”
Unfortunately, Phylicia Mitchell is the latest trans woman to have been killed in the Cleveland area in the past ten years. Also unfortunate –– that the paper had to mention the last time a trans woman was killed in Cleveland, 16 months ago.
#SayHerName
#HerNameWasPhylicia
#MurderedWhileTrans
#Justice4Phylicia
#BlackTransLivesMatter
h/t The TransGriot (who neglected to mention that two trans women from Albuquerque were found dead, not one)
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@pghlesbian
