JACKSONVILLE, Fla. | Duval Princess, a popular hairstylist and well-known member of the LGBTQ community in Jacksonville, was fatally shot at the Highland Square shopping center in the early morning hours of Jan. 2, according to a report from the Human Rights Campaign.
First Coast News reported the Jacksonville Sheriff’s Office received a call from a security guard saying an individual was found unresponsive in a car. Family members have indicated Princess was at the shopping center to meet some she knew.
According to a report from Action News Jax, a security video from a nearby business shows an individual waiting at the corner when a car pulls up which Princess is in. The individual gets into the car and after around 10 minutes a flash is seen from inside the vehicle followed by an individual running away from the vehicle.
Local news and some family members have been dead naming Princess in early reports; however, according to HRC, friends who knew the 24-year-old say she was in the early stages of transitioning and identified as transgender.
“I have never known a pain like this and we just want answers,” Raschel Campbell, Princess’ aunt, said in an interview with Action News Jax. “This was a senseless act of violence; it was a hate crime.”
Action News Jax reports that police are calling the incident a “suspicious death” and suspects “foul play” but have not listed the killing as a homicide.
The community is coming off its most deadly year with 51 known deaths due to violence against transgender and gender nonconforming individuals, mostly women of color. Princess is the second reported trans death in the first week of 2022. Amariey Lei, a 20-year-old Black trans woman, was killed on New Year’s Day in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania.
Anyone with more information about the killing of Princess is asked to call Crime Stoppers at 1-866-845-TIPS. Anyone with information regarding Lei’s death is encouraged to contact the Allegheny County Police at 1-833-ALL-TIPS.
GoFundMe’s have been set up for both Princess and Lei to help with funeral expenses.
