The third killing of a transgender person in the nation this year occurred in Pennsylvania last weekend.
Sean Ryan Hake, 23, died after a police-involved shooting at his home in Sharon, a small town in Mercer County north of Pittsburgh.
Hake’s mother reportedly called police to report a domestic-violence-related stabbing. A police spokesperson told reporters that the situation “escalated” once police responded, resulting in an officer shooting Hake.
It is unclear what events led Hake’s mother to contact police.
The officer involved has been put on paid leave during the investigation.
According to Hake’s Facebook profile, he worked in the bakery at Wal-Mart. Hake wrote on his page that he was engaged and had recently gotten sober. He also had been tracing his transition on social media.
SEAN RYAN HAKE
“Being transgender will always be the best and worst thing to ever happen to me and I am at peace with that,” Hake wrote. “I’m handsome and I am falling in love with the man I always was and meant to be. I made me. And the results are getting better and better everyday.”
On Jan. 4, Mississippi woman Mesha Caldwell became the first transgender person killed this year. The 41-year-old beautician was shot multiple times; no motive or arrest has been announced.
Two days later, the body of Jamie Lee Wounded Arrow, a 28-year-old trans woman, was found in her Sioux Falls, S.D., apartment. She had been stabbed multiple times. Police later arrested a 25-year-old man for her homicide.