The videotaped beating of a transgender woman while in police custody in Memphis last February led to charges against two officers and national condemnation from gay rights groups. The officers were fired, and the Memphis Police Department overhauled some of its procedures and began sensitivity training for the entire force.
Duanna Johnson, a transgender woman, was found fatally shot near downtown Memphis.
But a week ago, the woman, Duanna Johnson, 43, was found fatally shot near downtown Memphis. The killing has revived scrutiny of the case and put increased pressure on the department to find the killer.
“Duanna Johnson’s case was tragic before, and now it’s an almost unimaginable loss,” said Jared Feuer, the Southern regional director of Amnesty International. “Her treatment demonstrates a culture of violence against transgender people that must be addressed.”
Ms. Johnson sustained a gunshot wound to the head late on Nov. 9, the police said, and officers found her body after responding to a shooting call in North Memphis. Investigators said three men were seen near the crime scene before the officers arrived, but police officials say they have no suspects, have made no arrests and do not have a motive for the killing.
The Human Rights Campaign, the nation’s largest gay civil rights group, called for a federal investigation.
Ms. Johnson’s case attracted national attention in June after local television stations obtained a grainy surveillance videotape that showed a police officer, identified as Bridges McRae, striking her repeatedly with a gloved fist with handcuffs slipped over his knuckles and pepper-spraying her in the face.
Another officer, James Swain, held down the 6-foot-5 Ms. Johnson during the assault, which occurred on Feb. 12 after she was arrested on a prostitution charge. Ms. Johnson, who was in a booking area at the Shelby County Jail in Memphis at the time of the attack, told the authorities that Officer McRae had also hurled antigay epithets at her.
“The shock value of that video was incredible,” said Arthur E. Horne III, one of the lawyers who represented Ms. Johnson in a threatened federal civil rights lawsuit against the city, the Police Department and the officers involved in the attack.
The video was splashed across the Internet. The Memphis police director, Larry Godwin, said the crime left him “sick” and “infuriated.” Mayor Willie W. Herenton called the attack “disgusting” and promised to enforce any punishment doled out by the judicial system. The Federal Bureau of Investigation also opened an inquiry into the case to check for possible civil rights violations.
In June, the Police Department fired Officer McRae and Officer Swain, who was a probationary officer, and asked the Tennessee Equality Project, a gay rights group, to hold training sessions for officers about sexual orientation.
Mr. Horne had offered to forgo a lawsuit if the city settled with Ms. Johnson for $1.3 million. He said her estate might still proceed with a lawsuit against the city, the department and the two officers over the beating.
“Hopefully,” Mr. Horne said, “it will open the eyes of people in Memphis, the country and the world to the challenges that transgender and gay people face due to hate crimes. The only bright side of these crimes may be that they can effectuate some change for transgender people.”
Jonathan Cole, the Shelby County chairman of the Tennessee Equality Project, praised the Police Department as embracing the problem. But Mr. Cole said that Ms. Johnson’s killing demonstrated how much discrimination remained in Memphis.
“We’re a sleepy Southern town,” he said. “For the most part, I think people in the South treat each other well. But there are prejudices that people have, and those prejudices come out in ways that are often violent when no one is looking.”
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