Arrest made in stabbing death of transgender woman
Philadelphia police have arrested a man in the stabbing death of a 21-year-old woman this week in North Philadelphia, officials said Tuesday.
Philadelphia police have arrested a man in the stabbing death of a 21-year-old woman this week in North Philadelphia, officials said Tuesday.
Raheam Felton, 31, of the 2500 block of South 61st Street in Southwest Philadelphia, was charged with murder and possession of an instrument of crime in the killing of London Banks.
Banks was found at 12:49 a.m. Monday on the sidewalk outside an abandoned house on the 2200 block of North Ingersoll Street where she had been staying, police said, suffering from multiple stab wounds.
Felton was identified by witnesses and taken into custody. Police said he admitted to the killing.
The motive was an argument, police said, but it was unclear what the argument had been about.
News of the killing shook the city's LGBT community.
Banks, a transgender woman known by friends and community members as "Londyn Chanel," was a "social butterfly" with a large group of friends, said Naiymah Sanchez, director of the Trans Information Project.
"She had a beautiful smile," Sanchez said. "She was a beautiful person."
She said those who knew her were shocked by her death, and were more troubled by the fact that Felton was dating one of Banks' housemates.
Banks had participated for several months in a transgender outreach program that Sanchez runs.
"She was one of the individuals that actually took from the program, and tried to work on herself," she said. Her goals were simple - more stable housing, a full-time job - but she was working hard to achieve them, Sanchez said.
"She had hopes and dreams of being successful - that 'real life,' " Sanchez said.
Banks had been staying in the abandoned house with two other women when she was killed, which speaks to the lack of housing options for transgender individuals who feel unsafe in shelters and unsure where else to turn, Sanchez said.
"It's so sad. She was so young. She had potential," Sanchez said.
Helen "Nellie" Fitzpatrick, director of the mayor's Office of LGBT Affairs, said Banks was well known in the trans community and that many were upset by her death and early reports that identified her as a man.
"The initial response was, of course, devastation at the loss of a member of the community, and the pain of seeing her misrendered by the media," she said. But she said she was heartened by quick corrections to those early reports: "I must say that I am hopeful seeing the response we have had."
