Death of Trans Model ‘Tommy Playboy’ Is Being Investigated by the NYPD
The death of the 23-year-old trans model Thomas Blackwell, who was known as “Tommy Playboy,” is being investigated by the New York City Police Department.
Friends of the Bronx, New York, resident had posted on Instagram that Blackwell was missing earlier this week.
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Shortly before midnight on Saturday evening, NYPD officers responded to a call for a person needing medical assistance in the vicinity of Seventh Avenue and West 42nd Street. That location, in the heart of Times Square, is a heavily trafficked area 24/7 with more than 85,000 people passing through nightly between 7 p.m. and 1 a.m. “Upon arrival, officers observed an unconscious adult male on the northbound [2 line] subway tracks,” a NYPD spokesman said Wednesday. “EMS responded to the location and pronounced him dead at the scene.”
The cause of Blackwell’s death has not been determined and the investigation remains ongoing, according to the NYPD spokesperson.
The New York City office of the chief medical examiner’s assistant director of forensic biology Mark Desire said Blackwell’s case is pending. The brown-eyed model, who was 5 feet, 10 inches with a face tattoo of a Chinese symbol, was said to have worked for fashion designers Shayne Oliver and Telfar Clemens. Representatives from both companies did not respond immediately to media requests Wednesday.
On Instagram, @TommyPlayboy described themselves as “Misunderstood Misfit. Model. Movement Artist. Youth Advocate.” Blackwell was said to have danced in Thalía’s music video “La Luz” and aspired to model for Balenciaga. Wearing a Donatella Versace-like blonde wig, sunglasses and a glimmering black evening dress, the model attended last week’s dinner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Temple of Dendur in honor of its yearlong partnership with the Korean beauty brand Sulwhasoo. They had thanked PR Consulting on social media for the invitation.
A fundraising effort is underway to pay for Blackwell’s cremation and to support relatives.
An Instagram post Monday by Uzumaki Gallery’s Uzumaki Cepeda flagged Tommy Playboy as a missing person. Cepeda’s post said Blackwell identified as a Black trans woman, and the model was last seen three days prior near Columbus Circle wearing a furry outfit, colorful boots with fur and fishnets that the Los Angeles artist had designed. Cepeda did not respond immediately Wednesday to a media request.
Blackwell’s death comes at a time when transgender rights are being debated and, in some instances, restricted in multiple states. For example, seven states have banned transgender students from using school bathrooms and lockers rooms associated with their gender identities.
Personal safety and violence against trans people is an ongoing priority for organizations such as The Trevor Project. More than one in four trans people has faced a bias-driven assault, and rates are higher for trans women and trans people of color, according to the National Center for Transgender Equality. A study by the International Commission on Human Rights in the Americas, found that trans women of color had a life expectancy of 30 to 35. Last May, in what was believed to have been one of the largest studies that documented disparities among US. trans and non-trans populations, researchers determined that trans people had significantly higher mortality rates at nearly every age compared to their non-trans counterparts.
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