By Jacob Richards
On Friday, June 19, Grand Junction Police Department shot and killed Patti Wilson, a 31-year-old trans woman.
What we know, paints the picture of a person having a mental health crisis. It was a violent situation that ended violently. Long before a conflict over a Cherry-Coke escalated into violence in the North Avenue Dairy Queen, the closures of Mind Springs Health, West Springs Hospital, Mesa County’s Behavioral Health Department, and the Homeward Bound’s North Avenue Shelter set the stage for this tragedy.
According to sources close to her, she struggled with mental health issues and had recently left an abusive relationship.
She, like too many young trans people, had experienced bouts of houselessness.
A recent study by the National Low Income Housing Coalition found that trans people experience homelessness at a rate eight times the national average.
“Resources are dropping like flies in Mesa County for those experiencing crises. There’s nowhere for them to go. It’s almost like when you take away the crisis center, then people who are in crisis can’t get the help they need and they go do crazy shit,” said Lilli Moore in a Facebook reel addressed to the people of Grand Junction. “But it is not an excuse for your transphobia.”
“This is not the person I knew, I had this person over to my house for Thanksgiving three years ago,” said Moore. Moore, a former Mesa County resident that lived here for eight years and knew Wilson through connections within the LGBTQ community.
Wilson made music under the name Patti Dracula on BandCamp. She was passionate about politics, as confusing and nuanced as they were. Wilson politically identified as a MAGA Communist, regularly posting American Communist Party posts. The ACP is a MAGA-aligned communist party.
“My heart is so broken and will never be repaired,” wrote Wilson’s mother, Kayla Wilson, in an online fundraiser. “My daughter Patti Wilson has passed away and she lived in Colorado. So I need assistance getting her back home with me.”
The Mesa County Sheriff’s Office is leading the 21st Judicial District Critical Incident Response Team (CIRT) investigation into the use of deadly force by the Grand Junction Police Department. All uses of deadly force under Colorado law trigger a CIRT investigation, and per policy the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave.
MCSO continues to mis-gender Patti in public communications despite the coroner using her correct gender pronouns.
“Patti Wilson did not ‘identify’ as a woman; she was a woman. Accurate representation is a matter of basic human dignity,” said Heidi Jeanne Hess, a Grand Valley LGBTQ+ community activist. “Local authorities continually, since the killing of Jayne Thomoson in 2020 willfully misgender trans people in life and death.”
In 2020, when Jayne Thompson was shot and killed by Colorado State Patrol during a wellness check, authorities dead-named and misgendered her through the entire CIRT investigation.
Comments on social media are as disgusting as you’d imagine. Even the neo-fascist pond scum that run Libs of Tik Tok have jumped in to spin a narrative around trans violence.
“Remember, this was a person experiencing a medical crisis and they could not get the medical intervention they needed, and then multiple people ended up harmed, and this person ended up dead,” said Moore.
Eye-witness Otis Taylor, offered up another peaceful solution to KREX-TV, “we should have just went ahead and bought [her] that Cherry Coke or Dairy Queen could have gave it to [her] instead of having all this happening.” (gender corrections were ours).
Members of the local LGBTQ community, while not condoning violence nor condemning the GJPD’s handling of the situation pending the CIRT findings, see the tragic loss of life as preventable.
“Patti Wilson’s life had value, and her death is a tragedy that impacts those who knew her and the broader Grand Junction community,” said Hess.
If you or a loved one are in crisis, please reach out for help.
Call or text 988 to talk to the Colorado Mental Health Line. 24 hours a day. (Note: they will send police to do wellness checks sometimes, placing the person in crisis at potential risk.)
Health Solutions West provides mental health care across western Colorado 1-877-603-7045
There are also a non-carceral support lines that will not call the police
Call Backline: 1.800.604.5841
Thrive Lifeline: 1.313.662.8209
Trans Lifeline: 1.877.565.8860
Community is often the best support. Queer and trans folks looking for community in western Colorado should check out:
Loving Beyond Understanding in Grand Junction
Mountain Prides The Space in New Castle.
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