A man and a woman face murder charges in the killing of a transgender woman last month.
Philadelphia Police announced Thursday the arrests of 19-year-old Jose Pena and 24-year-old Tiffany Floyd in the stabbing death of 25-year-old Maya Young.
Young was found at late on Feb. 20 along the 4800 block of Penn Street with multiple stab wounds to her neck and chest, police said. She was lying on the street when officers arrived and died a short time later at Aria Frankford Hospital.
Officers arrested Floyd, who lives on Cloud Street, on Tuesday and nabbed Pena, who lives on Pratt Street, on Wednesday. Both face murder and conspiracy charges.
The motive for the stabbing wasn't revealed.
"Maya’s name and memory now join an ever growing list of trans identified people who have lost their lives at far too young an age to violence," Nellie Fitzpatrick, director of Philadelphia's Office of LGBT Affairs.
Young is the first transgender person to be killed in Philadelphia this year, Fitzpatrick said. Last year, two transgender women were killed.
Keisha Jenkins was killed during an October robbery in Hunting Park. London Chanel was stabbed to death inside an abandoned home in May. Charges were filed in both cases.
Jenkins and Chanel's deaths were part of a spike in homicides of transgender people across the United States. Twenty-three trans and gender-nonconforming people were killed in 2015.
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"We must work to increase opportunities for jobs and career paths, access to meaningful health care and the coverage to go along with it, housing and education," Fitzpatrick said.
