a trans teenager was shot in belle glade in july and almost nobody wrote it down. two people are now charged.

The Belle Glade welcome sign. Photo: Jair, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Jayla McGee was 19. She was shot on Southwest Avenue B in Belle Glade, Florida, before dawn on July 5, and when the Palm Beach County Sheriff's Office first announced the killing it described the victim as "an adult male," The Advocate reported in July, noting that her death had been "barely acknowledged by the media or authorities."

On Thursday, Oct. 22, deputies arrested two people. The sheriff's office says Elijah McClorin III was the shooter and Tomiah Duhart was the driver, according to CBS12 and the Palm Beach Post. McClorin is charged with first-degree murder with a firearm. Duhart is charged as an accessory. Both are charges, not convictions.

According to the Post, McClorin has denied any role in the shooting, both to investigators and in a jailhouse call. His lawyers at the public defender's office do not comment on open cases, the Post reports, and Duhart's attorney did not immediately respond to it. Both remain in the county jail.

CBS12 says her family is happy an arrest has been made. In a statement the station carried, they described her as "a loving and beautiful soul with a heart of gold" who "was truly the life of the party." The National Black Justice Collective held a candlelight vigil for her after she died.

It took three and a half months and a tactical unit. Her name should never have needed an editor's note.