Nizah Morris

A call was placed to 911, and a 9th District officer arrived at the scene, but did not call a supervisor or treat the event as a crime.

Morris was transported to Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in critical condition.

Nizah Morris (1955 – December 24, 2002) was an American transgender entertainer.

On December 22, 2002, Morris suffered a severe head injury from which she did not recover.

Morris died on December 24, 2002, at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital, when she was removed from life support.

The Philadelphia Police Department's handling of Morris' death sparked protests in the LGBT community and led to several investigations into the police coverup of her death.

Nizah Morris began living as a woman in her early 20s.

By December 2002 she had built a life for herself working at her mother's daycare center, performing in the weekly drag show at Bob and Barbara's—a bar in Philadelphia's Center City neighborhood—and practicing Buddhism.

On December 22, Morris attended a party at the Key West Bar at the intersection of Juniper and Chancellor streets in Philadelphia.

Morris left the bar at 2:00 a.m., and collapsed outside of the bar due to intoxication.

Onlookers formed a group around Morris—who could not stand without assistance and had to be supported, according to witnesses—and waited for paramedics for approximately 20 minutes.

A 6th District police officer arrived, canceled the prior call for paramedics when Morris declined to go to a hospital, and offered her a courtesy ride to a hospital.

Morris declined a ride to the hospital and asked to be taken home.

Witnesses at the scene reportedly helped her into the police cruiser.

Though Morris lived in the 5000 block of Walnut Street, police officers reported that she asked to be let out at 15th and Walnut streets, left the patrol car, and began walking toward 16th Street.

Minutes later, a passing motorist discovered Morris lying on the sidewalk, bleeding from the right side of her forehead.

On December 23, 2002, she was removed from life support, and at 8:30 p.m. on December 24, 2002, Nizah Morris was pronounced dead.

On December 25, 2002, the Medical Examiner's office classified Morris' death as a homicide.

However, the Police Department's homicide unit refused to accept this ruling, classified Morris' death as accidental, and requested a second opinion from a brain-injury specialist.

The following day, Morris' mother—Roslyn Wilkins—was notified of her daughter's death by a detective who informed her, "He's dead."

The detective was removed from the case after Wilkins complained about his alleged insensitivity.

On December 27, 2002, family members viewed photographs of Morris' body at the Medical Examiner's office, and expressed concern upon noticing slight indentation marks on her wrists.

Morris' mother and sister said medical examiners showed them pictures indicating defensive wounds on her hands.

On December 31, 2002, The Philadelphia Inquirer published the first media account of Morris' death, which referred to her as a "prostitute" in the headline and a "male prostitute" in the body of the story.

Nizah Morris was cremated on January 1, 2003, after a funeral service attended by more than 300 people.

In the days after Morris' funeral, questions concerning her death arose among her family members and in the LGBT community.

During a meeting on January 7, 2003, with Homicide Captain Charles Bloom, Wilkins learned that her daughter received a courtesy ride from police 20 minutes before she was discovered lying on the sidewalk with a head injury.

Details supplied by police about the moments prior to and following Morris' injury and discovery by a passing motorist conflicted with family members' recollections of Morris, and with witnesses' accounts prior to Morris entering the police car outside of the Key West Bar.

Morris' family doubted she would have accepted a ride from the police, given her fear of them, and questioned why she would ask to be dropped off miles from where she lived.

On January 30, 2003, more than a month after Morris' death and the Medical Examiner's assessment that it was a homicide, the homicide division of the police department officially declared Morris' death a homicide.

Tests performed by a brain-injury specialist, on samples taken during an initial autopsy, resulted in a finding that her death was due to cerebral injury.

Police initially suggested Morris' death had been accidental, and a police spokesman declined to comment on what led the Medical Examiner to conclude Morris' death was a homicide.

Contradictions between police accounts and witness accounts, and incomplete compliance with police procedures also aroused concerns that Morris case had been mishandled and the cause of her injury and subsequent death covered up because of her status as an African-American transgender woman.

Many of these contradictions and questions were reported by Timothy Cwiek, a reporter for Philadelphia Gay News, who has followed the story of Morris' story since the first reports of her death.

A key witness to the event stated that when she asked Nizah where she lived that it sounded like 15th and Walnut.

The message could have been misconstrued because Ms. Morris was incoherent.

A key missing fact is that when after being helped the first time (before the police arrived) was that after the initial help, Nizah was found in the street after a taxi refused her service.

The taxi took off with the door open and with such force that this initial fall could have caused damage.

Witnesses who were outside of the Key West Bar said Morris was incapable of standing on her own, and had to be helped into the police car.

They doubted that she would have been capable, just minutes later, of getting out of the police car on her own and walking away as police officers reported.