Authorities investigating if transgender teen's killing in George County is hate crime
GEORGE COUNTY -- Officials are looking into whether the slaying of a transgender teen in George County earlier this month is a hate crime.'
*Josh Vallum, 28, a documented member of the Latin Kings street gang, has been arrested on a charge of first-degree murder. He's being held at the George County jail on $1 million bond. The state Department of Corrections has placed a hold on him for violating the conditions of his parole on a conviction of false reporting of a crime.
Vallum surrendered June 2, a day after his father called to say Vallum told him he'd killed someone, who was buried in the father's backyard in the rural Rocky Creek community."
*You know, God gave each human being a life and a right to that life," Lawrence said. "I don't think we should allow another person to take that life because of their own personal view or their opinion, whether it's based on race like we saw play out in the horrors in Charleston last week, whether it's based on ethnicity like we saw in Nazi Germany, whether it's based on religion like we are seeing ISIS do today in the Middle East or whether it's based on sexual orientation. We should not allow one person to decide whether they can hate someone and justify a killing. We should say, 'No. You can't kill, period.'
"I long for the day when we can accept and embrace our differences instead of killing over them."
Mercedes is the ninth known transgender woman killed in the United States in 2015, according to the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs. "
http://www.sunherald.com/2015/06/23/6291030/authorities-trying-to-determine.html
