Arrest Made in 2021 Murder of Black Trans Woman Angel Naira in Aliquippa, Pennsylvania

Angel Naira was 36 when she was found dead in her Aliquippa apartment from multiple gunshot wounds in late November 2021.

On Friday, Pennsylvania State Police announced that they’ve arrested and charged 46-year-old Darese Darrel Raines on homicide and weapons charges. He’s being held in the Beaver County Jail without bond.

According to the criminal complaint, a suspect matching Raines’ description was caught multiple times on video surveillance in the area of Murray’s apartment on Nov. 9, 2021, the day of the shooting. Police later reviewed phone records, which linked Raines to the scene, and found DNA at the scene belonging to Raines that placed him in the apartment before the killing, the district attorney said.

Raines was interviewed by authorities in May 2022. He claimed he didn’t know Angel. No further details have been released regarding motive or where Raines has kept himself this past year and some change. Has he hurt anyone else? How are we not asking this?

Angel was the fourth trans BIPOC neighbor killed violently in Southwestern PA during 2021. In February, 24 year old Chyna Carrillo was murdered by a man she was dating in New Wilmington, Lawrence County. The following week 22 year old Jasmine Cannady and their…