Source: Hollie Adams / Getty
2020 was full of bad news. And its reach did not spare the Black Trans community. According to The Human Rights Campaign, 2020 was the deadliest year on record in terms of Black and Latinx women in the Trans community. There were 43 known victims of violent deaths.
Sadly, at the tail end of this year, on December 27, 2020, another Black woman lost her life in an Athens-Clarke County parking lot in Georgia.
After the victim was initially misgendered by the coroner, police identified the woman as 40-year-old Kimberly Patricia Cope.
Her body was found by a woman who was walking her dog in front of Raising Canes Chicken Fingers at 795 Baxter Street in Athens.
Sonny Wilson, the coroner said there were no initial signs of foul play but stated that the autopsy will determine the result of the investigation.
Since Cope was misgendered, the initial police report claimed that Cope was wearing “lady’s sleepwear” when her body was discovered.
Georgia Voice reported that Cope’s friends told police they saw someone in a white SUV pull up and speak to Cope. It’s unknown whether she entered the vehicle. But Classic City News reported that when they looked again, “Kimberly was no longer in sight.”
Cope’s friends reported that they last saw her between 1-3 am.
Cope’s body was transported yesterday, January 4, 2021, to undergo an autopsy at the Georgia Bureau of Investigation’s State Crime Lab.
