Koko Da Doll, a woman from Atlanta and the subject of a documentary about trans women, was gunned down on the street on Wednesday.
Along with other trans women, Koko Da Doll featured in the documentary “Kokomo City” earlier this year. She talked about her life as a trans woman, her interactions with Black men as a sex worker, and violence she had faced throughout her life.
“I feel like she wanted to get her story out,” said Koko’s sister, Kilya Willaims. “She’s not ashamed of who she was. Because if she was ashamed of it, she would have never did the documentary. She was proud of who she was because she came from a loving, accepting family.”
“Kokomo City” director D. Smith wrote in a statement on Instagram that she wanted to make a movie “to show the fun, humanized, natural side of Black trans women” and not focus on “trauma or the statistics of murder of transgender lives.”
“But here we are again, Smith wrote. ”It’s extremely difficult to process Koko’s passing, but as a team we are more encouraged now than ever to inspire the world with her story, to show how beautiful and full of life she was.”
Trans women, especially Black trans women, face violence more than four times over what cisgender people of any gender face. They are the single demographic most likely to be murdered, and violence against them is less likely to come to any sort of legal justice.
Atlanta police are looking for a person who was caught on camera nearby at the time of the shooting. Koko Da Doll was shot on the sidewalk of a busy street, but no witnesses have come forward.
Atlanta police said Friday that they are investigating whether Koko’s shooting as well as the deaths earlier this year of two other transgender women should be classified as hate crimes.
“We understand the impact violence has on all our communities and we understand some acts of violence bring about legitimate concerns of whether the incident was motivated by hate.”
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