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Muhlaysia  Booker, a transgender woman who was attacked in April was found dead this past Saturday.

Police responded to a report of a shooting in the 7200 block of Valley Glen Drive around 6:40 a.m. Saturday, Dallas Police Major Vincent Weddington said.

“Upon arrival, officers found the lying face down in the street deceased from homicidal violence,” Weddington said during a news conference on Sunday.

Booker was previously assaulted last month by several men in the parking lot of a Dallas apartment complex after what police said was a minor traffic accident. The disturbing video from the incident showed the suspects repeatedly punching and kicking Booker while she was on the ground helpless.
During the assault, the suspects used homophobic slurs and police were trying to determine if it was a hate crime.

According to HRC, in 2018, advocates tracked at least 26 deaths of transgender people in the U.S. due to fatal violence, the majority of whom were Black transgender women. These victims were killed by acquaintances, partners and strangers, some of whom have been arrested and charged, while others have yet to be identified. Some of these cases involve clear anti-transgender bias. In others, the victim’s transgender status may have put them at risk in other ways, such as forcing them into unemployment, poverty, homelessness and/or survival sex work.

While the details of each case differs, it is clear that fatal violence disproportionately affects transgender women of color, and that the intersections of racism, sexism, homophobia, biphobia and transphobia conspire to deprive them of employment, housing, healthcare and other necessities, barriers that make them vulnerable.

Related links: Transgender Women Who Have Been Murdered