A Trans Woman Who Faced Attacks In Dallas Has Been Found Dead

The attack last month was not the first time she was targeted.

Last month, Muhlaysia Booker, a 23-year-old trans woman, was attacked in a parking lot in Dallas. The attack was captured on video by bystanders, made national news, and was investigated as a possible hate crime. In the video, a man repeatedly hits Ms. Booker and other men kick her before a group a women assist her in escaping. The assault led to a hospitalization for a concussion and a fractured wrist.

In what would turn out to be a grim foreshadowing of what was to come, Booker appeared at a press conference after the attack. “This has been a rough week for myself, the transgender community and also the city of Dallas,” Ms. Booker said.  “This time, I can stand before you, whereas, in other scenarios, we are at a memorial.”

According to the New York Times, this wasn’t the first time Booker has been targeted.

“She was so tired of getting beaten down,” a friend of Booker’s told The New York Times. “Tired of not being able to be who she wanted to be.”

It a tragic turn of events, Booker was found dead last weekend after being shot. The police are currently saying that there is not a connection between the prior attack and Booker’s murder. At a law enforcement news conference, a representative from the Dallas Police Department said that Booker had been found “lying face down in the street, deceased from homicidal violence” around 7 a.m. on Sunday.

Ms. Booker’s death is only the latest attack on the trans community. Transphobic attacks are on the rise throughout the country, with the Human Rights Campaign reporting that at least 26 trans people were killed last year. Most of those killed were Black transgender women. The Human Rights Campaign reports that at least five trans people have been killed so far in the United States in 2019. All five were Black transgender woman, and all five were fatally shot.


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