UPDATE::Suspect Arrested In Murder Of Transgender Woman India Clarke

Police in Tampa, Florida, have arrested a man they believe murdered India Clarke, whose death put her on a growing list of transgender woman killed violently in the U.S. this year.

DNA evidence linked 18-year-old Keith Lamayne Gaillard to Clarke's death, according to a Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office press release. Investigators found Gaillard's DNA under Clarke's fingernails, as well as on a condom containing fluid in her car. Police said the suspect's fingerprint was found on a cigar wrapper in the car.
Clarke had died at a family-friendly park in Tampa on July 21. Detectives initially reported that the cause of death was blunt force trauma, but revealed this week that she'd been shot in the head and arm.

A maintenance worker found Clarke's body on the morning of July 21 in the park at the University Area Community Center.

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Meanwhile, her parents and authorities refused to call her by her preferred pronouns.

"We are not going to categorize him as a transgender. We can just tell you he had women's clothing on at the time," detective Larry McKinnon told BuzzFeed News. "What his lifestyle was prior to that we don't know -- whether he was a cross-dresser, we don't know."

Suspect Arrested In Murder Of Transgender Woman India Clarke

Tampa, Florida Sees Tenth Trans Woman Murdered in U.S. in 2015 | Advocate.com

India Clarke, a 25-year-old black trans woman, was found beaten to death Tuesday morning outside Tampa, Florida's University Area Community Center, reports Tampa Bay TV station WTSP.

A park employee called police after discovering Clarke's body just before 9 a.m. near the basketball courts. She died from blunt force trauma to the upper body. Family told the TV station that they had last seen her on Sunday spending time with her nephews.

Her killing marks the tenth murder of a trans woman in the U.S. this year, nearly as many as in all of 2014.


Tampa, Florida Sees Tenth Trans Woman Murdered in U.S. in 2015 | Advocate.com