Jayla McGee, a 19-year-old Black transgender woman from Belle Glade, Florida, was shot and killed on July 5. Family members announced her death on social media and organized a candlelight vigil on July 18 to honor her memory.
Social posts and relatives say McGee died from gun violence in the inland community where she was born and raised. The Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office confirmed deputies responded to a shooting on Southwest Avenue B at 5:28 p.m. A Sheriff's Office spokesperson told The Advocate:
"Upon arrival, deputies located an adult male deceased from gunshot wound(s). Detectives are investigating this shooting as a homicide. No motive or suspect information is known at this time."
Some news outlets and officials initially described the victim as an "adult male," and at least one publication misgendered and deadnamed McGee. Advocates and friends say that failure to recognize her identity contributes to a wider pattern of erasure that obscures violence against transgender people of color.
Limited Local Coverage and Community Response
Despite occurring less than an hour from West Palm Beach and roughly the same distance from Mar-a-Lago, the shooting drew very little attention in the Palm Beach media market. Organizations that track anti-transgender violence, including Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents and Trans United Fund, recorded and amplified McGee's death. Pittsburgh Lesbian Correspondents listed McGee as the 15th reported transgender person of color killed in the United States this year.
Trans United Fund criticized both local authorities and media for failing to accurately identify McGee, saying the silence forced family and friends "to preserve the record themselves" by documenting her name, image, date of death and the circumstances of the shooting.
Broader Context
Advocates say McGee's erasure fits a larger pattern across the South. A March report from the social justice organization JULIAN cataloged more than 150 suspicious or hate-related deaths across seven Southern states, including over 50 cases involving transgender women. The report argues that the intersection of racism and transphobia is compounded by institutional failures such as incomplete investigations, inaccurate classifications and records that do not reflect victims' identities.
Federal data also undercount anti-transgender violence because hate crime reporting to the FBI is voluntary and uneven across agencies, creating gaps that make such violence harder to detect and address. As JULIAN founder Jill Collen Jefferson told The Advocate, "What cannot be fully counted can be more easily dismissed."
Jayla's family had already endured another deadly shooting: her younger sister, Ronziyah, was killed in 2022 on the same block where Jayla later died; that earlier tragedy received more extensive local coverage.
The case remains under investigation. Authorities have not released a motive or identified a suspect, and community advocates continue to demand accurate reporting and respectful recognition of Jayla McGee's identity.
