Two people have been arrested in connection with the killing of Jayla McGee, a Black transgender woman shot dead in Belle Glade, Florida on 5 July. Elijah McClorin III is charged with first-degree murder, and Tomiah Duhart with accessory to first-degree murder. Investigators believe McGee was targeted because she had been a witness in a separate homicide investigation.

Jayla's family said they were glad the arrests had been made. I imagine they are. And I also imagine that gladness is a complicated, exhausted thing when the person you are grieving cannot come home regardless of what a court eventually decides.

Her family described her in words I want to put on record here, because they are the truest thing in this story: "a loving and beautiful soul with a heart of gold." They said she brought love, laughter, and light to everyone around her. That she deeply loved her siblings, nieces, and nephews. That she was truly the life of the party, always bringing smiles and unforgettable memories wherever she went. "Loved beyond words," they said, "by her entire family and by everyone who had the privilege of knowing her."

Read that again. That is who Jayla was, and that is who is gone.

What the investigation found

According to the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office, deputies responded to reports of a shooting on SW Avenue B in Belle Glade shortly after 5:27 in the morning. They found Jayla with a gunshot wound to the head. She was pronounced dead at 5:39 a.m.

Surveillance footage showed someone dressed in black getting out of a dark grey car and entering a nearby alley multiple times before a shot was fired. The car returned to a residence shortly after. Cellphone records placed devices associated with both McClorin and Duhart in Belle Glade at the time. Duhart initially told investigators she had been in Port St. Lucie, then changed her account to say she was at her mother's home in Belle Glade. Her mother later told investigators a different version again: that McClorin had asked Duhart to pick him up because he was drunk, and that he had asked her to pull over near the scene, got out briefly, then returned to the car.

Investigators also noted that Duhart removed a doorbell camera from the residence after McClorin was detained. It was later found in a car she was travelling in. There was also a message from McClorin asking Duhart to say she had been driving her own car that night.

The affidavit names what investigators believe was the motive: Jayla had been a witness in the investigation into the February killing of McClorin's brother. Tips suggested she may have been targeted because of that connection.

A name that should not need repeating

The article carries an editor's note explaining that authorities identified Jayla using a different name. Her family identified her as Jayla McGee. I will use the name her family gave her, because that is who she was to the people who loved her, and it is the name that belongs on the record.

The National Black Justice Collective held a candlelight vigil for Jayla after her death. That vigil mattered. So does saying her name now, months later, when the news has moved to courtrooms and charges and legal procedure. She is not just a case number.

The pattern that sits behind every individual name

I keep returning to what the investigators believe happened here. Jayla was, it seems, killed not because of who she was as a trans woman, but because of what she knew as a witness. That is an important distinction, and I do not want to collapse it. The facts matter.

And yet I also cannot separate Jayla's death from the wider reality that Black transgender women face a level of violence that is staggering. Year after year, the names that appear on vigil lists, in advocacy reports, in candlelight ceremonies are disproportionately the names of Black trans women. The reasons are not mysterious. Racism, transphobia, poverty, and social exclusion compound one another in ways that leave people exposed and underprotected. When someone is already pushed to the margins, they are more likely to be in the situations where violence finds them, less likely to feel safe engaging with authorities, less likely to be believed or protected when they do.

Jayla had been a witness in a murder investigation. She had tried to cooperate with justice. And the investigators believe that cooperation cost her her life. I do not know how to read that without feeling something that goes beyond grief into anger.

What her family said

I want to end with them, not with the legal charges or the surveillance footage or the changed alibi. Jayla's family said her passing has left an unimaginable pain in their hearts, and that they continue to grieve every single day. She loved her siblings, her nieces and nephews. She was the life of the party. She brought joy.

That is a whole life. A life full of people who loved her and whom she loved back. The arrests are a step. The grief is not over.

Rest in peace, Jayla.

If there is a news story you would like me to cover then just let Sammy know.

Dr Helen Webberley is a gender specialist, medical educator, and advocate, and the founder of GenderGP. She writes about gender diversity, trans healthcare, and the lives at the centre of both.