FAIRMOUNT HEIGHTS, Md. — A transgender female was killed Thursday night in Fairmont Heights.
On Thursday, just before midnight, Prince George's County police responded to the 600 block of 59th Ave., in Fairmount Heights to check on the welfare of 23-year-old Zoe Spears.
Upon responding, officers found Spears suffering from several gunshot wounds. She was pronounced dead on the scene.
Officials from Casa Ruby, a local LGBTQ community center, said she had been in and out of their center for the last two years and had been there as recently as in the past two weeks.
Casa Ruby's director of operations, Consuella Lopez, said Spears' friend was recently the victim of a violent crime and that she had worried her life was in danger too. Lopez said Spears was threatened after witnessing that friend's murder.
This will be the second transgender woman killed in Prince George's County this year. The first woman, 27-year-old Ashanti Carmon, was fatally shot on March 30, a few blocks away from Thursday night's murder, police said.
Major Brian Reilly with Prince George's County police said they don't believe there are connections between the two murders, but police said Spears and Carmon knew each other.