It is believed that Tony was under great threat, he was reportedly being targeted with violence by five cisgender men on account of his being trans and his death is thought to be the result of trying to defend himself against these brutal hate crimes.
These claims tend to be untrue or misleading.
Tony McDade killed next-door neighbour, Malik Jackson, 21, after pledging to do so on FB Live.
www.facebook.com/tony.mcdade.39/
McDade had mental health and drug problems.
The police claimed that McDade had a gun when arrested, hence the shooting. Others have said not.
However McDade spent 10 years in prison for gun crimes so the police claims have credibility.
www.tallahassee.com/story/news/local/2020/06/02/natosha-tony-mcdade-tallahasssee-protests-protest-mental-illness-fatal-stabbing-police-shooting/5300384002/
From the article:
After serving a five-year prison sentence for armed robbery, McDade was behind bars again on a probation violation she got after Tallahassee police found her with guns and drugs.
She wrote then-Leon Circuit Judge Mark Walker in early October 2009 pleading for mental health treatment and begging for a second chance. She said the underlying robbery was actually "a drug deal gone bad" and that someone set her up with the gun to get her in trouble.
McDade said her rap sheet of more than a dozen arrests showed she was “a fighter not a gun user” and pleaded to be sent to Florida State Hospital in Chattahoochee for treatment if convicted.
“I have an anger problem and always fought behind my anger,” McDade wrote. “I NEED HELP PLEASE SIR. I have a mental problem.”
But McDade was in far deeper trouble than she knew. Around the time she wrote the letter, a federal grand jury indicted her on serious gun charges from the arrest.
She got 10 years in prison and was transferred far from home, to the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn, New York.
Last week, McDade, 38, was shot and killed by a Tallahassee police officer after allegedly stabbing to death Malik Jackson, 21, the son of a next-door neighbor. The stabbing came only hours after a group of men brutally attacked McDade in an incident caught on cell phone video.
...
McDade wrestled with gender identity. Over the past year or two, McDade began transitioning to a man.
“When she started the transition, she wanted to be known as Tony,” Roberson said. “When you hear people who say ‘she,’ those are people who have been in Tosha’s life for a very long time, and that’s how we identify Tosha. And when youhearpeople who say ‘he,’ those are the ones ... who also identify Tosha as male.”
...
It's unclear how important names and pronouns were to McDade. Witnesses in the most recent arrest used the name Latosha, and McDade had a number of aliases including "Kiti," according to court records. McDade used both Tony and Natosha in the Facebook video.
People with agendas like to reduce this to childishly simplistic narratives about transphobia.
However violent men would have identified McDade as female and a lesbian. Having the stature, muscle, bone density, etc., of a woman would do that.
It's possible that McDade was victimised as a perceived lesbian.
It's likely that McDade was victimised as a vulnerable woman with mental health problems.
It's certain that involvement with drugs and guns, and living in a housing project surrounded by criminals would have made McDade's prospects as a black person worse, than say a middle class black person living in a nice suburb.
It's a very simplistic narrative to say 'black trans lives matter'. This is a 'black lives matter' story in that this is a black person living among crime, involved with crime, and killed by the police after committing a homicide. The overarching story arc is tragic. But those who want to reduce it to 'transphobia' are idiots.
The story continues:
On Tuesday, after events that remain unclear, a group of men brutally beat McDade in an incident partially captured on cell phone video.
Later that day, McDade went live on Facebook, venting deep pain and anguish and vowing revenge on the attackers and a confrontation with police.
“It’s just Tony the Tiger all alone coming for your blood,” McDade said. "I am killing and going to be killed, because I will not go back into federal prison."
By Wednesday afternoon, McDade was dead, along with a next-door neighbor’s son, Malik Jackson, who was reportedly involved in the beating. McDade stabbed Jackson around 10:45 a.m., police said, before going on the run, making it as far as housing complexes on Holton Street.