Pgh Lesbian Correspondents

A hit and run traffic incident in San Francisco left a 74-year-old white trans woman dead. Her name was Dannielle Spillman. Incident, not accident.

The Crime

On Monday, April 16, around 1:30 p.m. near Mission Street and South Van Ness Avenue. Valentine Cash Amil was driving a black 2024 Mercedes-Benz E350 and had just finished filling up at a Chevron station. Allegedly his wife and daughter were in the car. As he attempted to merge into traffic, his vehicle partially blocked the sidewalk. Dannielle had words with him as she was trying to traverse the sidewalk.

FOX News reports Dannielle poured a bottle of water on the front of the car. So Amil naturally thought running her down with his car was an appropriate response. The report from FOX

Amil then accelerated into Spillman, knocking her onto the hood and windshield, prosecutors said. After driving several feet, Amil slowed down, causing Spillman to slide off and land directly in front of the car. Amil then allegedly drove over her and fled the scene. Spillman was pronounced dead at the scene 10 minutes later. Amil was arrested nearly two hours after the incident.

He ran down a 61-year-old woman because of some words she said about his driving choices and may have dumped a bottle of water on his car. Now his lawyers are saying her body ‘somehow’ ended up on the hood of his car – as if she threw herself, a 74 year old woman, on to the vehicle – to what end?

Honoring Dannielle

Dannielle has lived in San Francisco for the past 20 years. One story said she dressed like a rock star and acted like your best possible grandma. Not much is known about her background except that she was a military kid. Media outlets have misgendered her and inaccurately reported that she was homeless.

Her case manager Derrick Guerra described her as a woman who loved playing guitar and talking about music.

But the six friends who spoke to Mission Local in the wake of Spillman’s death could only describe gratitude for having known her. She was kind, tall, sweet, generous, funny and bright, they said. She was elegant and deeply caring. She was present, calm and thoughtful. 

She often wore black, and dressed in long trench coats and hats in the style of Mick Mars, former lead guitarist for Mötley Crüe. Many saw her as  a trans elder.

She liked daily walks, thrift stores, Rainbow Grocery, bluegrass, ‘70s classic rock and singer-songwriter music, hollowbody-type guitars, the Rolling Stones, Wilco, Jeff Tweedy and the Grateful Dead.

Read the piece at Mission Local to see more reminisces by friends and neighbors.

Spillman was also active in the Shanti Project, an organization with a support program for older LGBTQ+ adults.

Guerra recounted a conversation where Dannielle recently shared that she felt San Francisco was safer for trans women in the 90s than it is today.

“She was telling me recently she was nearly assaulted and that a man had recently tried to hit her,” Guerra said.

The SF Standard reports that in the months leading up to her death, Spillman told friend Derrick Guerra she felt increasingly unsafe navigating the city, describing multiple confrontations in which strangers misgendered her and, in one case, attempted to hit her at a bus stop.

She also reported ongoing issues at her apartment building, where a pest-control worker repeatedly referred to her as “sir” during a dispute over access to her unit, and said she had felt safer as a transgender woman in San Francisco decades ago than she does now.

Her friends organized a vigil Monday evening at Real Guitars.

While little is know of her background, it seems that since the 1990’s Dannielle built a legacy of kindness and compassion, along with her reverence for music especially guitars. She mentioned to friends that she spent some of her teen years in Norway and that she was involved in communes in the 1960s. What is know of her final years is amazing.

One source even claims that Dannielle carried around bottles of water to distribute to homeless folx, perhaps a bottle of water the man who killed her claimed was a threat to his family.

Context

Dannielle is the third trans person whose violent death has been reported in the US during 2026. I have no doubt there have been other violent deaths, they are just hidden for reasons I laid out earlier. It is on all of us to honor those who lives were taken in shadows, in silence, and under cover of anti-trans bias.

She is the third trans woman and the oldest person whose death has been recorded in the US this year.

California has witness multiple violent deants. From 2025, Linda Becerra Moran Hope Lyca Youngblood and the presumed death of Blair Lumpkins Crabb. In 2024, Michelle Henry and Meraxes Medina. In 2023, Banko Brown, Kylie Monali , Thaddeus ‘Tad’ Keegan Bradley, and DéVonnie J’Rae Johnson. Then 2022, Paris Rich Jessup, Cherry Bush, and Day Rodas. From 2021, Rayanna Pardo, Nikai David, and Poe Black / Oliver Jackson. In 2020, Marilyn Cazares and Kimberly Fial.

Deaths due to vehicles hitting pedestrians are numerous as well. During 2025, Blair Sawyer was killed by a car while on her bicycle. In 2024, Honee Daniels in New York State, Kita Bee was killed in Missouri, and Kitty Monroe in Arizona. Then in 2023, Codii Lawrence. In 2022, Matthew Spampinato was killed in Delaware while Za’Niyah Williams was run down in Texas. In 2015, Tamara Dominguez

San Francisco Streets reports

Spillman was the eighth pedestrian killed in San Francisco in 2026, matching the toll at the same point last year, according to Walk SF. The block where she died is on the city’s 2024 High Injury Network, a designation covering the 13% of streets that account for 74% of serious injuries and fatalities. The SoMa neighborhood is a hot spot, “with every single street on the High Injury Network,” said Jodie Medeiros, executive director of Walk SF.

According to a 2021 William Institute study, about 50% of trans folx have a driver’s license. I don’t know if Dannielle drove or wanted to drive. Absolutely, she had the right to expect to walk on a sidewalk without being killed. But it does require us to consider the barriers to driving for trans folx.  Florida, Indiana, Kansas, Tennessee, and Texas all have active restrictions on gender markers for state issued IDs. Those restrictions put people in harm’s way while driving because their ID may not match their presentation to a police officer. It impacts the ability to obtain a car loan or insurance because your legal documents are not consistent. Will it create more potential targets for furious drivers? Perhaps directly and indirectly.

That’s how discrimination works.

Rest in power, Dannielle. The love your friends and neighbors had for you is so strong, so overflowing, such a reflection of how much your poured into their lives. Your legacy is how you lived your life and that cannot be taken by this driver. I am sorry we did not listen to you and others who pointed out increasing hostility and violence, that we did not help to make San Francisco safer for you.

I hope we all aspire to distribute water to our homeless neighbors and resist threats to pedestrians.

May your memory be a revolution.

Deaths reported in 2026

These individuals are part of the trans community including transgender, nonbinary, gender nonconforming, and gender creative folx. Please do not share this content without attribution. Thank you

1. Shyyell Diamond Sanchez-Mccray – Petersburg, Virginia. March 13, 2026. Age 42.
2. Davonta Curtis – Chicago, Illinois. April 5, 2026. Age 32.
3. Dannielle Spillman – San Francisco, California. April 16, 2026. Age 74.