Jalen Breon Brown, 21, who allegedly shot and killed Atlanta transwoman Ava Le’Ray Barrin outside an Athens, Georgia, apartment complex, is out on bond.
Brown, who is also transgender, was granted bail this week by a Western Judicial Circuit judge, according to the Athens Banner-Herald. According to Athens-Clarke County police, Brown shot 17-year-old Barrin at the Riverview Apartments complex on College Avenue on June 25 following a feud between two groups of transgender individuals.
Defense attorney Edward Brumby said Brown was granted a $100,000 bond because there was no flight risk and no serious felonies on Brown’s record. While out, Brown is under house arrest and must wear an ankle bracelet.
Police told the Banner that both Brown and Barrin were at the apartment complex visiting friends, and the initial argument that started the deadly incident was between friends of the two.
Police Capt. Jerry Saulters of the ACCPD Criminal Investigations Division said it was about 11:45 a.m. when Barrin and her friends crossed paths with Brown.
“Brown was on the second floor of one of the apartment buildings and the victim was in the parking lot when they reportedly began to argue,” the Banner reports. “Saulters said Brown fired a ‘warning’ shot in the direction of the victim, before he went down to the parking lot and started fighting with [Barrin].”
It was then that Barrin was shot in the chest “in self-defense,” according to Brown. She was pronounced dead on the scene, making her the 16th known transgender murder victim in the US this year. Her death was followed barely a month later by that of another Atlanta transgender woman, Tee Tee Dangerfield, who was found in her car suffering from gunshot wounds at a College Park, Georgia, apartment complex. A suspect in that case is now in custody.
h/t Athens Banner-Herald