A Black transgender woman, Angel Unique Haynes, was a 25-year-old cosmetologist from Jackson, Tennessee, with a vibrant personality, known for being funny and nice to everyone she met. Her life was tragically cut short on October 25, 2020, when she was found shot to death in a room at the Motel 6 in the Whitehaven neighborhood of Memphis. She had traveled to Memphis for the night and had spoken to her best friend around 10 p.m., promising to call upon her arrival, a call that never came.
Early the next morning, Memphis Police responded to a call at the Motel 6 on East Brooks Road and discovered Angel's body; she had sustained a gunshot wound to the head and was pronounced dead at the scene. Her death was quickly classified as a homicide, marking at least the 34th violent death of a transgender or gender non-conforming person in the United States in 2020, a year that was the deadliest on record for transgender people.
Friends and family were left devastated by the loss of Angel, who was just a couple of months away from celebrating her birthday in December. Her best friend, Takia Weddle, expressed her profound grief and the belief that Angel was targeted and killed because she was a transgender woman. In the wake of her death, friends and family held a candlelight vigil in her hometown of Jackson to honor her memory.
The Memphis Police Department initiated an investigation into Angel's murder, but in the initial days and weeks following the incident, no suspects were identified. Authorities appealed to the public for any information that could lead to an arrest, encouraging people to contact CrimeStoppers. As of late 2020, no arrests had been made, and no suspect information had been released to the public, leaving the case unsolved and a community in mourning, seeking justice for Angel Unique Haynes.
