Last month, a horrific video went viral of 23-year-old transgender woman Muhlaysia Booker being viciously attacked in Dallas, Texas. Nearly a month later, Booker has now been found dead. She was reportedly shot and killed.
SEE ALSO: Muhlaysia Booker Incident Comes As Violence Against Black Trans Women Is Soaring
According to a press conference, New York, Maj. Vincent Weddington said officers found Ms. Booker shortly before 7 a.m. on Saturday. They responding to a report of a shooting Ms. Booker was found “lying facedown in the street, deceased from homicidal violence.” Dallas News reports she was a victim of “homicidal violence.” As of now, shooting does not appear related to the her attack on April 13.
Watch the press conference below:
Her attacker, Edward Thomas, 29, was reportedly offered money to beat her up, Dallas News reported. He was arrested but no longer in custody. He is not believed to be involved
Back in April, Booker said she accidentally backed into another car while driving in the Royal Crest Apartments parking lot. She claimed a gun was pointed at her and was not allowed to leave unless she paid for the damage to the car. A crowd gathered and an unknown person allegedly offered $200 to Thomas to assault Booker. It was unclear whether Thomas accepted the money. But there was no mistaking the assault, which was captured on video.
The below video is graphic. Watch at your own discretion.
A report from the Human Rights Campaign said that 2018 was the second consecutive year that more than two-dozen members of the transgender community were known to have been killed. At least 26 transgender people were killed in 2018, the majority of them Black transgender women. Since 2013, there have been 128 killings of transgender people, of whom 80 percent were people of color.
The trend appears to continue. In 2019, the first known transgender person killed was a Black woman in Alabama. Dana Martin, 31, was found dead in a vehicle from a gunshot wound in January.
The actual number of transgender victims was not clear. Physical attacks, harassment and sexual assaults against transgender people are often underreported. Added to the problem, police often identify victims by their birth gender instead of their self-identified gender.
Rest in power, Muhlaysia Booker.
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