23-year-old Muhlaysia Booker, a transgender woman whose April attack made national headlines, was found dead in Dallas on Sunday morning.
Suggested Reading
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.
Booker, who was identified by medical examiners, was assaulted in April in a Dallas apartment complex parking lot after what police describe as a minor traffic accident. Authorities said they were investigating the attack as a possible hate crime. Police say there is no evidence that the shooting and the earlier attack are related.
The April incident was captured on video, but warning: the video is graphic.
29-year-old Edward Thomas was arrested for his role in the attack, wherein he and the other suspects were reported to have used homophobic slurs toward Booker, who suffered a fractured wrist and a concussion, according to the New York Times. 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.” Thomas is no longer in police custody, but there is no indication that he was linked to Booker’s death, Weddington added.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least 26 transgender people, most of them black transgender women, were killed in 2018. In addition to Booker, three other transgender black women have been fatally shot so far this year.
Straight From 
Sign up for our free daily newsletter.