Tahiry Broom, a 29-year-old Black transgender woman, was shot to death February 9 in Southfield, Mich., near Detroit.
She was found in the parking lot of an apartment building where she had arranged to meet Robert Ridges III, who had connected with her through a commercial sex advertisement, Detroit’s CBS affiliate reports. Ridges is accused of shooting Broom after an argument.
Police were called to the parking lot of Riverstone Apartments shortly after 10 a.m. They found Broom, who was unresponsive and died at the scene.
Ridges was arrested hours later at the MGM Grand Casino in Detroit. He is charged with second-degree murder, carrying concealed weapons, and felony firearm possession. When executing a search warrant at his home, police found a gun that had been reported stolen from Georgia in 2023, and they believe this was the gun used to kill Broom.
Ridges had placed 33 calls to sex workers the morning of February 9, Southfield Police Chief Elvin Barren said, according to the CBS station. Most of the people he called were Black women, including trans women.
Second-degree murder carries a maximum sentence of life without parole, according to the Oakland County Prosecutor’s office. Carrying concealed weapons carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and mandatory forfeiture of the weapon, while the felony firearm charge carries a sentence of two years in prison served consecutively with and preceding any term of imprisonment imposed for the felony or attempted felony conviction.
“Every person is entitled to live without fear of violence,” Oakland County Prosecutor Karen McDonald said in a press release. “Tahiry Broom had family and friends who loved her. She did not deserve to die, and her killer will be brought to justice.”
Broom’s aunt Patricia Bender has set up a GoFundMe campaign to help pay for memorial services and other expenses. “Tahiry is a beloved member of the LGBTQ community who was murdered simply for being who she was!” she wrote on the GoFundMe page. “She was brilliant, vibrant, and confident. She loved her friends and family. She was very outgoing and resilient and loved to live life to the fullest. Genuinely one of the sweetest souls you’d ever meet and would give anyone the shirt off her back.”
Bender said she hopes Broom will be remembered as a bright light. She was “funny, smart, like one of those people that can walk into the darkest room and find some light in it,” Bender told TV station WXYZ.
“Bender says her niece loved making people laugh, was full of energy and confidence and loved Nicki Minaj,” WXYZ reports.
“She shine a light that’s gonna shine forever and ever and ever and ever,” Bender added.
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