By Dennis Romero -
NBC News
Koko Da Doll, one of the stars of a soon-to-be-released documentary about transgender women, was shot and killed in Atlanta this week, the film's publicist said Friday.
She was 35 years old.
Cinetic Media, the advertising firm representing
Kokomo City,
which highlights the stories of four black transgender sex workers in New York City and Georgia, confirmed via email that Koko Da Doll was the transgender woman murdered Tuesday in Atlanta.
Atlanta police and the Fulton County Medical Examiner's Office have not publicly released the identity of the victim.
The homicide is
the third fatal shooting of a transgender woman in Atlanta
since the beginning of the year, the police department said in a statement Friday.
“While these incidents are unrelated,
we are acutely aware of the epidemic-level violence
experienced by black and color transgender women in the United States,” police said.
[North Dakota passes 10 anti-LGBTQ bills in one day]
Koko Da Doll in Park City, Utah on January 21, 2023. Neilson Barnard / Getty Images file
Atlanta police said they received an alert at 10:42 pm about a person with a gunshot wound at an address that corresponds to a shopping center.
The victim died at the scene, he said.
Like the two other attacks this year on transgender women, one on January 9 that followed a dispute and another on April 11 that also followed a fight, the case was still under investigation, police said.
[Florida joins nearly a dozen states that restrict medical care for trans minors]
Police said there is no evidence so far to suggest the victims were targeted because of their gender.
“Our investigators have not found any indication that the victim was targeted because she is transgender or a member of the LGBTQ+ community and these instances do not appear to be random acts of violence,” the department said.
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GLAAD announced the death of Koko Da Doll, who also went by the name Rasheeda Williams, on Friday, stating: "Williams should be alive today."
“All transgender people deserve to live in safety and acceptance, loved by their families, communities, and able to contribute to a world where everyone is freer,” the LGBTQ advocacy group said.