A female in-house anti-sex trafficking attorney was shot and killed on Monday evening in midtown Atlanta in what police are calling a “targeted killing.”
Forty-year-old Trinh Huynh was shot several times on Monday. She was an attorney for UPS and provided free work for sex trafficking victims. Huynh was also a refugee from Vietnam and proud to be an American.
“I was on my route coming down Peachtree and I heard the gunshots,” said eyewitnesss Toney Booker. “I look up and see the woman she just drops in the crosswalk bleeding. She’s clutching her wound trying to keep pressure, and then she went unresponsive, So civilians run out to her and give her chest compression’s to bring her back, while they’re applying pressure.”
Ms. Huynh was taken to Grady Memorial Hospital where she died.
Raylon Browning, 39, was stopped by police after running a traffic light and was arrested. Police say that the killer had been witnessed on CCTV both before and after the shooting.
Atlanta police Deputy Chief Darryl Tolleson said at a news conference Tuesday afternoon said that Browning was wanted in connection with an aggravated assault that occurred on Sunday in which he allegedly stabbed two people.
Midtown Shooting Arrest https://t.co/PkttqGtLzx
— Atlanta Police Dept (@Atlanta_Police) April 4, 2017
APD: Trinh's killer was wanted for aggravated assault after stabbing 2 people day before he killed her. Stay with @wsbtv for more. pic.twitter.com/q25kCtDLK5
— Nefertiti Jáquez (@nefertitijaquez) April 4, 2017
Cobb County Police discovered what they believe to be the murder weapon inside Brownings vehicle. At the time of arrest, police did not know he was a suspect in Trinh’s murder, but an Atlanta police investgator connected him to the murder during an investigation of the assault on Sunday.
The Atlanta Journal and Constitution reports:
Surveillance footage captured him approaching Huynh and leaving the area, Lt. Ricardo Vazquez said.
“It (surveillance footage) shows that he was very calm before the shooting incident,” Vazquez said. “And then, even though he runs after the shooting incident, he again slows down and just starts to walk away.”
It wasn’t Browning’s first run-in with the law. Officials said he’s been arrested on drug and DUI charges and has gotten violent with police when arrested in the past.
According to Tolleson, Huynh “was picked out of the crowd for whatever reason.”
“We definitely believe that she was a target,” Lt. Ricardo Vazquez said. “Why she was a target, we do not know that yet.”
The killer didn’t talk to Huynh before he killed her – suggesting that the killing was “targeted” – police said, earlier this week.
“We see him following her in another piece of video,” Vazquez said. “There was another person in that intersection and it appears that he specifically targeted her.”
Georgia Asian Pacific American Bar Association released a statement on Tuesday and described Huynh as a woman who “passionately lived her life, whether as a daughter, sister, friend or lawyer. Her loss is tragic to GAPABA, the many people whom she influenced, and the community at large. She will be greatly missed.”
GAPABA's statement on the tragic loss of one of our own today:
Trinh Huynh passionately lived her life, whether… https://t.co/PfK6WRz4Iq
— GAPABA Board (@GAPABALaw) April 4, 2017
The Georgia Asylum and Immigration Network also issued a statement on her death.
GAIN releases statement calling Trinh "fearless" + "a bright light who was deeply passionate about the immigrant community." @wsbtv pic.twitter.com/dkPuCGqjjn
— Nefertiti Jáquez (@nefertitijaquez) April 4, 2017
Browning was arrested and charged with murder and jailed at Fulton County jail.
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