Officials reviewing death of Black trans woman following outcry from community, inconsistent details – WPIX 11 New York

NEWARK, N.J. — Newark law enforcement officials agreed to take a second look at a case involving the death of a Black transgender woman, initially ruled to be a suicide, after her family and activists said more needed to be done.

Details surrounding the death of Ashley Moore, 26, are inconsistent, which led activists and family to encourage law enforcement to dig deeper, according to several reports.

Police responded to the YMCA at 600 Broad St. in Newark on April 1 and discovered Moore lying on the sidewalk. She was pronounced dead at a local hospital, according to authorities.

It was ruled a suicide by the state medical examiner, officials told PIX11 News.

But Moore’s mother, a nurse, said in an interview with Out.com police changed their story with her, and said her child’s injuries were not consistent with what she heard from police.

Starlet Carbin, Moore’s mother, told Out.com she wasn’t informed of her child’s death until days later, when she saw condolence posts on Facebook.

But when she finally got in touch with officials, they told her Moore died from falling a great distance. Later, that story changed, and she was told her child was hit by a car, the report said.

The police report stated there were “ligature marks on Ashley’s legs, and that Ashley’s neck was grossly, grotesquely disfigured and swollen,” according to Carbin.

She said in the interview that the injuries did not match the scenarios she heard from police — falling, or being hit by a vehicle.

“It paints a picture of someone that was held down, tied down, and possibly strangled,” she said to Out.com. “That’s me, reading what I’m reading off of the police report.”

Carbin has not seen a copy of the medical examiner’s report.

The Newark LGBT Community Center also called for police to renew their investigation. According to the Out.com story, traffic camera footage from the area obtained by the center rules out death by car.

“She was just another Black, dead trans woman [to police],” Newark LGBTQ Community Center Executive Director Beatrice Simpkins told NJ.com, who also reported on the story. “There was no need to marshal the resources of the police department to find out what happened to her.”

A website telling Ashley’s story and calling for justice set up after her death called the police department “inept” and claimed there was no real investigation.

The story said a maintenance worker at the building called police.

The report also details Moore’s struggles, staying at homeless shelters and having been a victim of violence previously. She had been mugged in 2018, but was denied help, according to the Out.com and NJ.com stories, saying she had been called a homophobic slur by a dispatcher.

Newark Director of Public Safety Anthony Ambrose told PIX11 News Thursday he asked the Essex County Prosecutor’s Office to review Moore’s death.

“This unfortunate incident has officially been ruled as a suicide,” Ambrose said in a separate statement. “And to date, our detectives have not discovered evidence to the contrary. However, I have reached out to Essex County Prosecutor Theodore Stephens and requested a review of Ms. Moore’s death by the county’s Homicide Task Force.”

Ambrose said once the review is complete, Moore’s family will be contacted.