The Milwaukee transgender community is in mourning once again.
Cashay Henderson, whose body was found inside a burning apartment early Sunday morning, died of a gunshot wound, the Milwaukee Police Department said in a news release. Her body was found just before 10 a.m. after the Milwaukee Fire Department responded to an apartment fire on N. 29th St.
The 31-year-old is now the third Black transgender woman killed in the city in the past eight months.
In June, 28-year-old Brazil Johnson died after being shot multiple times. Her death remains unsolved.
Two months later, 35-year-old Regina “Mya” Allen, was also fatally shot. Her accused killer was arrested in October. He’s now awaiting a plea hearing on March 16.
“It was heartbreaking because we have been experiencing a lot of loss within our community,” Chris Allen, the president and CEO of the LGBTQ rights nonprofit Diverse & Resilient, told local television station WISN.
On a GoFundMe page seeking to raise money for funeral expenses, Henderson’s cousin Veronica Beck described her as a confident and independent trans woman who was “as beautiful as can be, inside and out,” adding that Henderson was “unfairly and unexpectedly taken from us.”
Born in Chicago in 1991, Henderson lived her last days in Milwaukee, where she was an active member of the Sisters Helping Each Other Battle Adversity (SHEBA), a support group for Black trans women.
The “funny, sweet and fabulous” Henderson was also a “great influencer” in the local trans community, according to the Black Rose Initiative, a coalition of local Black trans leaders.
The group paid tribute to their friend in a lengthy Facebook post on Monday, calling her one of their “great sisters.”
Henderson is at least the sixth trans person to be killed in the U.S. this year. Nearly all of them were trans women of color, according to data compiled by the Human Rights Campaign.
Advocates warn that the number could be even higher since similar cases can often be misreported.
Henderson was initially misgendered by Milwaukee police.