Deeniquia Dodds (Courtesy of MPD)

Dee Dee Dodds, who also went by Deeniquia, was shot in the early morning of July 4th, but many members of the transgender community didn’t find out about it for more than a week. And that, they say, is deeply troubling. A vigil to honor her life is also planned for Saturday evening.

Police found the 22-year-old around 3 a.m. in the 200 block of Division Avenue NE suffering from a gunshot wound to the neck. MPD tweeted the shooting at 4:23 a.m. and listed it as assault with a dangerous weapon in the sixth district’s crime alert the following day, but there was no indication in either that a transgender woman was the victim of life-threatening violence. The Washington Blade published a story that Dodds was on life support on the morning of July 13, around the time that she died. The next day, the Metropolitan Police Department issued a homicide release and called for information about the case. They identified Dodds by her birth name, along with “aka Deeniqua.”

In a Medium post, the harm reduction non-profit HIPS issued a statement arguing that the police didn’t speak up soon enough, writing: “The MPD has claimed in the past to be committed to looking out for the safety of people in the LGBTQ+ community, but failing to disclose information about violence against transgender people is certainly not consistent with this commitment.”

The delay, says HIPS director Cyndee Clay, meant that the community was slow to learn of the attack and created needless confusion. “We knew that it had happened because we heard through the community network. But when they finally made the statement, first they misgendered her, and because it had been so long, there was confusion if someone else had been shot ” Clay tells DCist. “We need information to be shared among the community as soon as possible so that people are safe if trans people are potentially being targeted.”

As reported by The Blade, and confirmed by trans advocate Earline Budd, an alert went out to a police organized-group of LGBT community advocates called the Violence Prevention and Response Team (VPART). But as a condition of being involved, they have to keep that information confidential. The Blade’s July 13 story was the first public report that indicated a transgender woman had been shot.

HIPS statement also takes MPD to task for using Dodds’ birth name instead of her chosen name in the incident report: “In issuing a report that misgenders shooting victims, police officers reproduce the very same violent attitudes that make tragedies like this one possible.”

Clay adds: “This has happened more than once with MPD and we continue to call for them to be better about it.”

A Washington Post story with details from the police release initially identified Dodds as a man; it was later updated online to reflect her gender identity and chosen name without a correction.

A general order outlines that it is MPD’s policy to “treat transgender persons in a manner appropriate to the individual’s gender presentation, which includes addressing them by their preferred name if different from their legal name and shall use personal pronouns appropriate to the person’s gender identity.” In an emailed statement, spokesperson Alice Kim explained that MPD decided to use Dodd’s birth name because they couldn’t speak to her to confirm otherwise. “MPD was never able to speak to the victim since he/she was unconscious at the time of MPD arrival. Without the victim being able to identify him or herself to us, we used the given name.”

According to Budd, who also works for HIPS and has been helping with Dodds’ funeral, her family requested that police withhold information that she was transgender and use the male name and gender. “The family made it very clear [to me] not to hold MPD responsible,” she tells DCist.

But both Clay and Budd say that MPD could and should have alerted the community without identifying her by name.

“Everything else is reported in this city in terms of shootings on the 4th of July. It bothers me, as a transgender woman, just to know that someone was shot in the early morning and left for dead,” Budd says.

In the span of less than a year, two transgender women were murdered in Montgomery County. Keyonna Blakeney, 22, was found with multiple stab wounds at a Red Roof Inn in April; a 21-year-old and a 17-year-old, both from D.C., have been charged in her killing. And last fall, 21-year-old Zella Ziona was shot in the head near the Montgomery County Shopping Village; a Germantown man is being charged in the case. The last transgender woman killed in D.C. was in 2012, when Deoni Jones was stabbed at a Metro bus stop in Northeast.

Dodds’ family has come around and agreed to disclose that she was a trans woman and “bury Dee Dee the way that Dee Dee lived,” according to Budd. A vigil is planned for her at 6:30 p.m. on Saturday in the court yard of the family’s home at 5355 Clay Terrace NE. A release reads: “the LGBTQ community encourages everyone to participate and show solidarity against hatred and violence.”