Chicago High School Student Killed Woman After Finding Out She Was Transgender

A high school senior in Chicago was arrested Sunday (June 14) for fatally shooting a woman after finding out she was a transgender, police said.

According to local reports, the boy, identified as 18-year-old Orlando Perez, arrived at Selena Reyes-Hernandez’s home in the 3300 block of West 71st Street in Marquette Park early on May 31. Soon after he found out she was a transgender, he left the apartment. However, he “kept seeing her face and it kept bothering him and he was mad as hell,” prosecutors told the court.

The teen then returned to the apartment with a gun and shot Hernandez in the head and back. He then ran out of the apartment. Minutes later, he returned and fired three more shots as she lay in a pool of blood on the floor.

Prosecutors told the court that security cameras captured the accused arriving with the victim in her car just early May 31. He then left about 20 minutes later. Perez returned about an hour later, wearing a face covering.

Police looked at the CCTV footage and identified Perez as the suspect. He was taken into custody on June 14.

During interrogation, he confessed to the crime. Perez was charged with first-degree murder. He was denied bail by Judge Arthur Wesley Willis on Tuesday (June 16) as he believed that Perez was a “danger to the community.” He remained in the Cook County jail and was scheduled to appear in court again on July 6.

Perez’s court-appointed attorney said the teen was a senior at Bogan High School who was set to graduate.

The incident comes a few months after a trans woman in North Carolina was shot dead while being treated in an ambulance by paramedics. Officials arrived at a parking lot after receiving a disturbance report. The officer saw six people in a parking lot. Suddenly one of them reported having shortness of breath. Medics were soon dispatched to the scene. When the victim, identified as 34-year-old Monika Diamond, was being treated inside the ambulance, her friend, 32-year-old Prentice Bess, shot her several times. Bess was taken into custody and charged with murder.