Philly man argued with a transgender woman before killing her, police say

A North Philadelphia man argued with a transgender woman before he fatally shot her Monday in his Jeep Wrangler, police said Wednesday.

Homicide Capt. Jason Smith, however, declined to describe the argument between Abdullah Ibn El-Amin Jaamia and Mia Green. He also would not elaborate on their relationship.

But Smith said that after El-Amin Jaamia drove the victim to the hospital Monday under police escort, he was taken to headquarters for questioning and was charged the next day with murder and related offenses.

“His initial story made absolutely no sense to us, which raised our suspicions,” Smith said. He would not provide details of El-Amin Jaamia’s account, but said the man later confessed to shooting Green.

El-Amin Jaamia, 38, of the 2400 block of Seybert Street, remains in custody following his arraignment early Wednesday on charges of murder, possession of an instrument of crime, obstructing justice, and tampering with evidence. He was denied bail. No attorney was listed for him on his court docket.

Patrol officers had stopped El-Amin Jaamia’s vehicle about 8:10 a.m. Monday after he drove through a stop sign on 41st Street near Westminster Avenue. He got out of the Jeep and told the officers his passenger had been shot, police have said.

Police saw Green, 29, of Philadelphia, in the front passenger seat, suffering from a gunshot wound to her neck. Officers allowed El-Amin Jaamia to drive her to Penn Presbyterian Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead within a half-hour.

Smith said that the shooting occurred shortly before the traffic stop, but that he did not know the precise location. The two fought, and El-Amin Jaamia grabbed a gun lodged between the driver’s seat and center console, and fired three times, Smith said.

Besides being shot in the back of her neck, Green also had a gunshot wound in her left arm and was grazed on her left side, Smith said.

Police are searching for the .22-caliber revolver used in the shooting. It was not recovered from the Jeep or El-Amin Jaamia, Smith said.

Deja Lynn Alvarez, an advocate in the transgender community, posted on her Facebook page Tuesday: “For all of the folks that see this I want to make sure that it is very clear this young lady was not murdered by someone who did not know her or by someone who did not know that she was transgender. She was murdered by someone that she had a long intimate relationship with which is more often than not the case! STOP BLAMING TRANS PEOPLE FOR THEIR OWN MURDERS!”

Alvarez said Wednesday she learned about the relationship from people in the city’s LGBT community who knew Green.

“Too often, we see a mix of toxic masculinity, misogyny, racism and transphobia play a strong factor in the deaths of Black trans women like Mia," said Tori Cooper, director of community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative of the Human Rights Campaign, a civil rights group.

El-Amin Jaamia, who also has an address on South Harwood Avenue in Upper Darby, has a permit to carry a gun from Delaware County, Smith said.