Mel Groves/Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Blade
Mel Groves, a Black Mississippi transman, died by gunfire after driving himself, wounded, to a local hospital.
Groves, 25, was shot multiple times and collapsed while getting out of the vehicle at Merit Health Hospital, reported Clarion-Ledger.
In an email last Monday, the Jackson Police Department said that Groves was then transferred to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he died.
According to the National Black Justice Coalition Groves, Groves was a farmer and a plant-soil scientist.
“The violence this year seems never-ending, and I am devastated each time I hear of another trans sibling lost,” said Victoria Kirby York, NBJC deputy executive director.
Jackson police are still trying to figure out a motive, suspects, and other pertinent details of the case. Since Groves self-transported to the hospital and collapsed immediately upon arrival, authorities have not gathered essential information.
“Right now, we’re in the process of trying to identify if the crime even occurred in Jackson,” Deputy Chief Deric Hearn said
.Hilliard Rashad Jones, a close friend of Groves, has been left to wonder what may have happened to his friend.
“I’m just trying to play the timelines in my head. When I got the call, it was 4 a.m. What was he doing? Was he calling for help? Maybe he was calling to say goodbye. All those things are going through my head. I know he would want me to go on,” Jones said.
In addition to the death, advocates have taken
issue with authorities initially identifying the deceased as a woman and “deadnaming” him. Deadnaming is using the birth name of a transgender person after they have transitioned and chosen another name.York said that Groves had expressed fear of living as a transman in Jackson and has attributed the death to hate-based murders of transgender individuals.