A Transgender woman in Dallas, TX has been found dead just one month after video of her being assaulted by 4 men outraged many online.
23-year-old Muhlaysia Booker April attack made national headlines after she was assaulted in a Dallas apartment complex parking lot after what police described as a minor traffic accident. Authorities were in the process of investigating the attack as a possible hate crime when she was found dead on Sunday morning.
According to CNN, Dallas Police Major Vincent Weddington said authorities responded to a report of a shooting around 6:40 a.m. Saturday.
“Upon arrival, officers found the complainant lying face down in the street — deceased from homicidal violence,” Weddington said during a press conference Sunday.
Police say there is no evidence that connects the shooting to the earlier attack. The brutal attack in April incident was captured on a graphic video. 29-year-old Edward Thomas was arrested for his role in the attack that left Booker with a fractured wrist and a concussion, the New York Times reports. Pierre Booker, who told NBC DFW he was Booker’s father, said that she had been attacked before, describing the most recent attack as the most violent.
“This don’t need to happen to nobody else’s kid, so we pray that everything comes out justifiable. We know the Lord works in mysterious ways,”
Shortly after the April attack, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings spoke out against the attack.
“I am extremely angry about what appears to be mob violence against this woman,” Rawlings said in a statement, according NBC DFW. “Those who did this do not represent how Dallasites feel about our thriving LGBTQ community. We will not stand for this kind of behavior.”
Police are still looking to identify the other three men who participated in Booker’s April attack, and Weddington encouraged community members to come forward with information “to bring closure to both these offenses.”
According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least 26 transgender people were killed in 2018. Majority of those deaths were black women. In addition to Booker, three other transgender black women have been fatally shot so far this year.
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