One of the things I hate about summer is that the frequency of murders of transgender people tends to pick up.

Police in Lynchburg, VA have reported that Ebony Morgan was found with multiple gunshot wounds around 1 a.m. yesterday.

Police found the victim after responding to a report of a possible malicious wounding at about 1:07 a.m., according to a news release. The victim was transported to Lynchburg General Hospital and later pronounced dead.

There was no evidence yet to establish the shooting as a hate crime linked to the victim’s transgender status, but if any such information is uncovered, then detectives will pursue that as a lead, Lynchburg Police Sgt. Bryan Williams told The News & Advance Sunday evening.

I'm sure all that is being looked at. At this point I don’t know if there’s any indication one way or another.

--Williams

Issac Zralii, founder of the Lynchburg Transgender Alliance, said the organization is doing everything it can to support the victim's family and members of the transgender community following the shooting.

We're trying to be very compassionate for the family in their time of need.

This is a sad day for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer community of Virginia. And a very sad day for us in Lynchburg.

--Zralii

Victims become doubly victimized when they’re not identified correctly by their name choice and the gender pronouns they use with their friends and family. This is not really so much an issue with the police, [as] making sure we are respecting the victim.

--Andi Miller, Lynchburg Diversity Center

Morgan is the 15^th transgender person murdered this year...and the second in the the last 5 days and third in less than three weeks.