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A 24-year-old Philadelphia man has been charged in last week’s fatal shooting of 22-year-old Keisha Jenkins, whose death raised alarm over escalating violence against transgender women in cities across the nation.

Pedro Redding was arrested Sunday and charged with murder, conspiracy, and weapons charges, but police stopped short of calling it a hate crime, according to The Inquirer.

Redding, who has a long rap sheet that includes arrests for drug offenses, aggravated assault, and robbery and firearm offenses, was known for committing robberies in the neighborhood where the shooting occurred about 2.30 a.m. on Oct. 6 on Wingohocking Street, near 13th Street in Hunting Park, the report says.

While Redding did not pull the trigger, Philadelphia police homicide Capt. James Clark alleges that he “had the idea to rob her when he saw” Jenkins.

From The Inquirer:

Jenkins, who lived in Grays Ferry with her family, had just gotten out of a car at 13th and Wingohocking Streets when Redding and three other men set upon her, police said. They surrounded her, punching and kicking her.

Jenkins, Clark said, fought back. That’s when one of the men pulled out a gun and fired two shots into her back.

“She gave a valiant fight, and that is why one of them pulled out a gun,” Clark said.

The arrest comes amid a surge in reported crimes against transgender women. Jenkins is the 18th transgender woman of color or gender-nonconforming person of color in the U.S. killed in a homicide this year, writes BuzzFeed. Most of the victims were women of color.

SOURCE: The Inquirer, BuzzFeed |PHOTO CREDIT: Twitter

SEE ALSO: 

Black Transgender Woman Fatally Shot In Philadelphia Is The 21st Trans Woman Killed This Year

Black Transgender Woman Was Profiled & Arrested During Vacation, Now She’s Stuck In Iowa

NYPD Label Subway Push Of Transgender Woman A Hate Crime

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Philadelphia Ex-Con Charged In Fatal Shooting Of Keisha Jenkins  was originally published on newsone.com