Police in Arkansas are investigating the death of Marcal Camero Tye, as a possible hate crime after a passerby found her body mangled in a ditch. The 25-year-old victim was shot in head
The 25-year-old victim was shot in head, and two 32 caliber casings were found at the scene. A black wig, was found near Tye, 25, and clothes were strewn about. Tye’s friend Jennifer Bohannon said Tye was a transgender woman, and believes that her encounter with a man that may not have known Tye was born a male led to her friend’s death.
The GLBT community is outraged that Tye’s death has yet to be called a hate crime by Bobby May the St. Francis County sheriff. The FBI has not been so quick to say it was not however, and said they will continue to investigate the case as either a hate crime or a civil rights violation.
Preliminary autopsy results indicated that Tye had been shot in the head, and though it was originally thought that she had been intentionally dragged by a vehicle, the autopsy concluded that this was false. Instead, Tye’s body appears to have gotten caught beneath the suspect’s vehicle and dragged about 300 feet, and there is evidence that the suspect stopped the vehicle and backed up to try to dislodge her body.
Even more disgusting is the fact that Sheriff May seems to have already decided, without the conclusion of the case or the identification of the suspect, that this is not a hate crime. He believes it was a routine murder case and that he suspects that Tye was looking out for sexual encounters at 2:00 a.m., and got involved in a “liaison that somehow went bad.”
Though he admits that Tye had no criminal record, the sheriff claims that she got herself in trouble while out working the streets. It is unclear how he made the assumption that Tye was a prostitute.
