The last time anyone saw Aniya Knee Parker was when she was picked up on surveillance video about 3 a.m. on Oct. 2 on a street corner in East Hollywood, Calif. That’s when she was engaged in a struggle with three men over her purse and then shot dead as she tried to run away, police say, according to Los Angeles Times.
Now the Los Angeles Police Department is offering $50,000 to tipsters who help lead to the arrest of the assailants, the paper says.
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“This is one of those unfortunate crimes that we’re going to solve with the community’s help,” LAPD Division Capt. Brian Pratt said during a press conference Friday at City Hall, the paper writes.
Parker, 47, who was transgender, may also have been targeted because of her identity, Christopher Argyros, manager of the Los Angeles LGBT Center’s Anti-Violence Project, told the Times, saying that transgender people are often victims of violence.
“We believe it is very possibly Ms. Parker was targeted because of her identity,” Argyros said to the paper. He said Los Angeles is home to one of the largest transgender communities in the U.S., whose members are often on alert.
Members of her family pleaded with someone to step forward with information about the crime. “We didn’t get a chance to say goodbye,” her sister, Adrian Parker, said at the news conference. The family is trying to raise $15,000 to pay for Parker's funeral.
Read more at the Los Angeles Times.
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