Authorities in Essex County, New Jersey have arrested one man in the brutal September 12 murder of Victoria Carmen White, a professional lingerie model and transgender woman. Twenty-five-year-old Marquise Foster turned himself in on Saturday night. Foster is charged with murder and bail was set at $1 million, reports the Star Ledger.
Police are still looking for the second suspect, 23-year-old Alrashim Chambers of Newark. Authorities say Foster and Chambers met White at an Irvington nightclub on September 12. Only hours later, White was shot multiple times inside a Maplewood apartment.
28-year-old White legally changed her name to Victoria Carmen after undergoing sex reassignment surgery nine years ago. Authorities suspect her killers may have discovered this and killed her in anger. And: When police released a statement about White's murder in September, they deliberately referred to her birth name and used masculine pronouns.
Meanwhile: Police are investiating a separate March 15 Maplewood homicide as a bias-related attack related to the victim's sexual orientation. Twenty-seven-year-old Arthur Downey, a Black gay man who lived in Maplewood, met his alleged killer the night he was slain on a telephone chat service. The suspect, 30-year-old John Staten of Orange, was finally arrested last week. "Staten [is] charged with murder, felony murder, burglary and weapons offenses," reports the Star Ledger. "He is being held at the Essex County Jail in lieu of $1 million bail."
Now let's just hope and pray that Victoria and Arthur receive justice
Posted by: Monica Roberts | 25 October 2010 at 15:52
This is sad. What is this world coming to? I hope that they rest in peace.
Posted by: Zambos27 | 25 October 2010 at 19:19