In Maryland, an African-American transgender woman has been murdered in what police say may be a hate crime. Twenty-one-year-old Zella Ziona was shot in the head in Montgomery Village Thursday night. Her friend, Jasmine Black, spoke to the local NBC station.

Jasmine Black: “She just wanted to embrace her life. She wanted to show the world how to be transgender. She helped people. She inspired somebody else named Chris to come out and be himself, because it’s hard for people to be theirselves.”

Zella Ziona is the 22nd transgender or gender nonconforming person murdered this year, the highest number ever recorded.