{"id":280376,"date":"2026-04-22T15:05:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:05:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280376\/"},"modified":"2026-04-22T15:05:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-22T15:05:13","slug":"after-dispute-driver-fatally-hit-beloved-san-francisco-trans-elder-dannielle-spillman-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/280376\/","title":{"rendered":"After Dispute, Driver Fatally Hit Beloved San Francisco Trans Elder Dannielle Spillman"},"content":{"rendered":"

Instagram \/ @real_guitars<\/a><\/p>\n

Sign up for\u00a0The Agenda<\/a>, Them\u2019s news and politics newsletter, delivered Thursdays.<\/p>\n

Following a dispute, a driver hit and killed 74-year-old San Francisco resident Dannielle Spillman, a fixture in the transgender community who had lived in the city for two decades, according to KTVU<\/a>. The driver, 30-year-old Valentino Cash Amil, has since been charged with murder and fleeing the scene of an accident, and is currently in custody.<\/p>\n

Spillman was walking in San Francisco on Monday Afternoon when she confronted a driver whose black Mercedes-Benz was partially blocking the sidewalk. After exchanging words at the driver\u2019s side door, Spillman walked in front of the car and allegedly poured liquid from her water bottle onto the hood of the car, per KTVU.<\/p>\n

Amil then accelerated into Spillman, who fell onto the hood of the car. After Amil drove several feet, Spillman slid off the car and landed on the ground. Amil then allegedly drove over her and left the scene, per KTVU<\/a>. Spillman was pronounced dead only 10 minutes later. A nearby security camera captured video<\/a> of the incident. Police arrested Amil about two hours afterward.<\/p>\n

Spillman \u201cdressed like a rock star and acted like your best possible grandma,\u201d per a report on her death in Mission Local<\/a>, a San Francisco-based news outlet. Friends who spoke to Local described her as \u201ckind, tall, sweet, generous, funny and bright,\u201d as well as \u201celegant and deeply caring.\u201d<\/p>\n

Local said that Spillman often dressed in black, donning long trench coats and hats akin to Mick Mars, former M\u00f6tley Cr\u00fce lead guitarist. She also loved \u201cplaying, buying, modifying and trading guitars\u201d and would regularly show up at a San Francisco Guitar Center with treats for employees, including strawberries and baked goods.<\/p>\n

\u201cDannielle Spillman was just one of the nicest, most personable people,\u201d Connor McKeon, a Guitar Center employee, told Local. \u201cShe was someone that would come in to hang out. She knew everyone\u2019s name and she knew all of our backstories.\u201d<\/p>\n

Spillman also visited the store Real Guitars, which was nearby to the site of the crash, several days a week to talk music history and even organized a holiday party for the staff, despite not being an employee, per the San Francisco Standard<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Real Guitars posted in remembrance of Spillman on Instagram.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are mourning the unexpected loss of a member of the Real Guitars family,\u201d the shop wrote. \u201cFrequent shop visitors might recognize Dannielle Spillman, who was killed in a hit-and-run blocks from the store on Monday afternoon. Dannielle was a deeply kind soul with an enormous heart who would always be sure to chat you up about music, the city, life. She really listened, and she really cared.\u201d It continued, \u201cShe brought a lot of warmth to our curmudgeonly little store, and she will be greatly missed for it.\u201d<\/p>\n

The writer of the caption, who signed the text only as \u201cJesse,\u201d also blasted \u201cdefamatory and degrading\u201d false reporting on Spillman implying that \u201c her death is somehow less important or more predictable because she was assumed to be homeless, something else that was also untrue.\u201d<\/p>\n

With regard to the footage of her death, the caption continues, \u201cIn my opinion, the footage unequivocally shows a driver making the decision to strike and run over a pedestrian, before fleeing the scene. It\u2019s horrible enough to be murdered in the street, but to then be further degraded and blamed after death is shameful.\u201d<\/p>\n

Derrick Guerra, a caregiver for the LGBTQ+ advocacy organization the Shanti Project, told the San Francisco Standard<\/a> Spillman had \u201cone of the biggest, most compassionate hearts\u201d he\u2019d ever encountered, saying that she often carried water bottles with her to give to homeless people, and that she once nursed a pigeon that flew into her apartment back to good health.<\/p>\n

Prior to her death, Spillman had begun to complain about the harsh differences in navigating San Francisco as a trans woman now versus in the past. She told Guerra that strangers had confronted her, misgendered her, and even attempted to punch her at a bus stop. A pest control worker called her \u201csir\u201d several times while trying to access her apartment. She said she often felt safer as a trans woman in San Francisco in the 1990s than she did today.<\/p>\n

An attorney for Amil, Seth Morris, has denied that Spillman\u2019s killing was intentional and that Amil was trying to protect his family \u2014 his wife, a 4-month-old son and a 10-year-old daughter \u2014\u00a0 from Spillman, whom Morris described as belligerent, who was trying to reach into the car, trying to hurt them,\u201d per KTVU. He said that Amil tried to drive away and collided with Spillman.<\/p>\n

\u201cMurder requires an intentional act,\u201d Morris said, per the Standard. \u201cThat\u2019s not what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n

“By charging him with murder, when he acted in lawful, self-defense, when he panicked, when they’re being attacked in the streets, is outrageous, and it needs to be stopped,” Morris said, per KTVU.<\/p>\n

The district attorney does not believe the incident required the use of lethal force.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy office does not believe, based on that video evidence and the statements collected thus far, that this victim posed any significant threat that would have warranted the legal use of self-defense,\u201d District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said on Thursday, per the Standard.<\/p>\n

Friends, loved ones and staff of the guitar shops she frequented gathered for a memorial outside Real Guitars on Thursday, per the Local.<\/p>\n

While speaking to the Standard, Matt Stevens, a Real Guitars employee, said that Spillman had once seen him playing a specific instrument in the shop: a Fender bass six baritone guitar. The two spoke about the unique instrument and it later disappeared off the shop floor. Later, Real Guitars owner Ben Levin had told him that Spillman had bought the guitar for Stevens and was waiting for a special occasion to give it to him.<\/p>\n

Get the best of what\u2019s queer.\u00a0Sign up for\u00a0Them\u2019s weekly newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Originally Appeared on them.<\/a><\/p>\n