Toronto’s LGBTQ+ community is demanding answers after a Black transgender woman reportedly died last week while in police custody.
According to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, Toronto Police Service responded to a 7 A.M. call on October 26 from someone who alleged their home was being broken into at an apartment on Bellamy Road in Scarborough, a district in eastern Toronto known for its cultural diversity. When police arrived on the scene, law enforcement officials discovered that the person who had called was in a mental health crisis.
That person was later identified as a 30-year-old Black trans woman, who has only been referred to as “Coco” in news reports regarding the incident. She was taken into custody under Canada’s Mental Health Act, which allows for protection for Canadians living with a mental illness which requires involuntary or voluntary treatment.
A police report further detailing the incident repeatedly misgenders her, referring to as a “man” and by male pronouns.
“When officers arrived at an 8th-floor apartment unit, they observed that a man [sic] had barricaded himself [sic] inside the unit,” Toronto’s Special Investigation Unit (SIU), said in a news release. “However, the officers were able to eventually make their way inside.”
According to the release, Coco was taken to the hospital where she went into medical distress and was pronounced dead at 10:15 a.m.
Further details relating to her identity or cause of death have not been released while the SIU launches an investigation, but according to a local LGBTQ+ advocacy group, The 519, Coco was “much loved” in the community. In a statement, the group called out the SIU for misgendering Coco in addition to demanding answers about Coco’s death.
“We refuse to wait any longer for information and answers from the TPS and the SIU that account for this loss of life,” The 519 said in a statement posted to its website Tuesday. “As an organization, The 519 will continue our commitment to holding organizations, agencies, and institutions publicly accountable — investigations and reviews must be honest and transparent to members of the public.”
“Those closest to this tragic loss, family, and friends, are owed answers,” the organization added. “Those in our communities are owed answers. More information is needed — and it is needed now.”
Black Lives Matter Toronto released a statement called the situation “unacceptable.”
“There are far too many people killed this year alone in police custody or by the hands of police in this north part of Turtle Island and Inuit Nunangat,” reads a statement posted to Twitter on Thursday. “We are tired. We are frustrated. And we are activated.”
