Brooklyn Lindsey, a 32-year-old Black transgender woman, was found dead on the front steps of an abandoned house in Kansas City’s Northeast neighborhood on the morning of June 25, 2019. Officers discovered her body at about 6:30 a.m. in the 600 block of Spruce Avenue with fatal injuries, and neighbors later reported hearing an argument followed by gunfire around 2:30 a.m.

Investigators recovered five shell casings near the body; DNA from those casings matched an individual already known to police. That person, Marcus S. Lewis, was in custody on unrelated charges when detectives confronted him with the forensic link. Lewis provided a statement saying an altercation began when Lindsey approached his vehicle on Independence Avenue, the two struggled and fell to the ground, and he then drew a firearm and shot her as he broke free.

Court records show Lewis pleaded guilty in Jackson County to voluntary manslaughter, armed criminal action, and unlawful possession of a weapon, and was sentenced to 22 years in prison in August 2021. Did anyone in the neighborhood know Brooklyn or see activity near Spruce Avenue that night?