Police: Transgender woman shot, mother killed in Northern Liberties robbery

Two discarded latex gloves and a set of bloodstained marble steps marked the spot in Northern Liberties where two people were shot last night, one of them fatally.

Police said they were called to the three-story home on the 700 block of North 3rd Street near Fairmount Avenue shortly before 9:15 p.m. There, they found a 65-year-old woman who had been shot in the chest, along with her 41-year-old transgender daughter, who was shot in the face.

Both of the victims were rushed to Hahnemann Hospital, where the mother was pronounced dead at 9:30 p.m. The daughter survived, but is in critical condition. Their identities have not yet been released pending family notification. Investigators said they believe the motive to be robbery.

The crime scene was reportedly particularly gruesome, with blood on all three floors of the home and ballistics evidence throughout. Multiple people lived inside the home, though their relationship to one another is currently unclear.

For the most part, neighbors were surprisingly … unsurprised. “It’s a good neighborhood,” one said. “With a lot of shootings.” A young man wearing a backpack casually asked, “Was it a shooting or a stabbing?” as he noticed the crime scene tape. He didn’t pause while walking over the blood-spattered pavement. At least four people walked their dogs through the crime scene in about 15 minutes. None of them stopped.

“I was eating dinner up the street last night,” nearby resident Sean Davis said. “When I walked by, I could hear a kid yelling over to a cop that was driving by. He was saying, ‘Somebody is bleeding from the ears.'” Davis, who works in medical sales and dates a doctor, said he immediately knew that someone had been shot. But the boy talking to the officer “didn’t seem frantic,” he said. “He was really controlled.”

Davis said that, unlike some of the other neighbors, he was shocked by the violence. “If it was down five blocks, that would have been another story,” he said. “But I was very surprised.” Still, he said that he did not pause when he heard the boy yelling, nor is he fearful for his own safety. “I just keep my head down and mind my own business,” he said.