I'm pretty sure it was yesterday that I wrote about the murders of two transgender women...one in New Orleans on Saturday evening and one in Chicago last Tuesday.

Well, another day older and deeper in debt...

Yesterday while I was watching the comments not be shared in that diary, another news item arrived, this time from NOLA's 7th Ward. For those who have not traveled to New Orleans, the 7th Ward is north-northeast of the French Quarter, which is where the Mardi Gras festivities are taking place.

The action took place around the corner from Cajun Seafood, so there were apparently lots of witnesses. They reported witnessing a man stopping his vehicle, which may have been a Camaro, on Columbus Street. The driver then reached over to the passenger-side door from inside the car and argued with with Ciara McElveen who was sitting in the passenger seat, according to the witness. The driver then got out of the car with a large knife and walked to the passenger-side door, where he spoke again to McElveen. The witness said the man then “pulled her out of the car, slammed her on the ground.” As the man drove off in the car, he drove over McElveen’s legs, the witness said. The witness said that from what he could see, McElveen appeared semi-conscious inside the car. He believed that she was stabbed somewhere else, then driven to Columbus Street.

When the guy came to walk to the side of the car, she must have been halfway-conscious. That’s why she didn’t get out of the car and leave.

--Witness

When police arrived, they first identified the victim as a woman, then as a man, snd finally said that they were "investigating the gender and the identity of the victim.

The woman never moved and once police rolled her over, the witness saw that it was his acquaintance (Ciara McElveen). It looked like she had been stabbed in the shoulder, chest and side near the lungs, the witness said.

Syria Sinclaire is a member of the New Orleans transgender community and a program coordinator at the Tulane Drop-In Wellness Center. Sinclaire and McElveen had worked together doing outreach to New Orleans' homeless population. Sinclaire said she was so distraught from the loss of Dupree last week that she was afraid to leave her house.

I'm so thrown right now.

Trans women don't want any special privileges. We should have the right to live our lives open and free and not be taunted and traumatized by the general public if they don't approve.

--Sinclaire

McElveen is the sixth known transgender woman of color murdered in the US this year.