Three weeks in the past, the physique of 16-year previous Tioni Theus was found with a bullet gap via the neck and dumped on the facet of Los Angeles’ 110 Freeway. Her household questions why Theus’ case has gone with out a lot buzz till these days whereas that of Brianna Kupfer, who was white and killed by 31-year-old Shawn Laval Smith (who’s Black), was promptly dealt with by legislation enforcement.
“Time and time once more, lacking and victimized Black ladies and ladies are ignored and lacked the suitable media consideration compared to their counterparts,” L.A. County Supervisor Holly Mitchell mentioned, in keeping with the Los Angeles Instances.
The workplace of California Governor Gavin Newsom is now providing as much as $50,000 for data resulting in an arrest and conviction of Theus’ killers. Nonetheless, the quantity could greater than double because the Los Angeles Metropolis Council can also be contemplating a reward of the identical quantity, and the L.A. County Board of Supervisors will contribute an extra $10,000, which brings the potential reward to $110,000.
Theus was allegedly final seen leaving her father’s Compton house and on her strategy to a good friend’s celebration when she disappeared. At Wednesday’s press convention, L.A. County District Lawyer George Gascón mentioned that the present proof recommend that Theus was a human trafficking sufferer.
Lakesia Barrett, Theus’ cousin was irate when she spoke with KABC. “She was thrown on the facet of the freeway like trash, and he or she’s a baby!” she instructed the outlet.
Nafeesah Kincy, one other one of many sufferer’s cousins, instructed the L.A. Instances, she seconded Gascón’s assumption. “We’re positively not pretending that Tioni was an angel. She confronted trauma,” Kincy mentioned, contending that Theus met a “man in his 20s” on Instagram and was lured into intercourse work. “I wish to humanize her. I don’t need her to be seen as a prostitute or a runaway or someone that folks really feel like, ‘Oh, properly, they dwell that way of life.’”
However County Supervisor Mitchell, who wrote the movement for the L.A. County Board of Supervisors to put up the $10,000 reward, urged everybody to recollect Tioni Theus was a 16-year-old Black lady in the beginning.
“Tioni and her household, have been robbed of her proper to develop up and dwell a full life,” she mentioned in her assertion. Mitchell concluded with the next: “Instances involving Black victims are 4 occasions extra prone to go unsolved. It’s crucial that we don’t permit implicit bias or adultification affect the media’s protection and public outrage over the murders of Black ladies.”
Individuals with details about the homicide Tioni Theus are ased to name the nameless tip line at 888-412-7463.
To report any incidences of human trafficking or get assist, name 888-373-7888
