There are new calls for justice from the mother of a transgender woman who was fatally beaten one year ago.
She is outraged because, still, no charges have been filed in connection with her death.
Now, Delores Nettles is speaking out, hoping that will soon change.
“It hurts, it really does,” she said. “It hurts. After all this time, and nothing’s happened. It hurts.”
There are no more birthdays, no more graduations. From this point on, it will only be annual commemorations of the day Islan Nettles left this earth. It’s a day Delores torturously replays in her head.
“What I could have done to make it better,” she said. “Somebody could have called me. I could’ve came up there. Maybe I could have stopped it. Things like that.”
Last August, Islan was walking on Frederick Douglass Boulevard near West 147th Street in Harlem when a group of men began making nasty comments to the 21-year-old transgender fashion design student.
Investigators say they became violent, beating Islan in the head repeatedly. Five days later, she died.
“I believe whoever was there, and it was quite a few of them,” she said. “Even though you didn’t do the punching, you were there. So I blame all of them.”
Paris Wilson was arrested and initially charged with misdemeanor assault, but a second person later came forward claiming responsibility for possibly assaulting Islan.
Prosecutors ultimately were forced to drop the assault charges against Wilson, all of which prompted transgender activists to push investigators for an arrest in the case.
“We want justice for Islan,” said Lourdes Ashley Hunter, of Trans Woman of Color Collective. “We want justice for every trans-woman that’s ever been murdered.”
In a statement, a spokesperson for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office tells Eyewitness News that “this very much remains an active investigation.”
But until a it’s over, Delores says she’s not going to let it go.
“People forget, but I’ll never forget,” she said. “People can go home and relax after a day or two, but I can’t. It’s still a memory. It’s still fresh.”
