Murder victim identified as trans woman Muhlaysia Booker

The Dallas Voice joins our community in grieving the murder of Muhlaysia Booker.

At about 6:44 a.m. Saturday, May 18, officers responding to a shooting call in the 7200 block of Valley Glen Drive, found a black woman lying face down in the street, “deceased from homicidal violence.”

Today, at approximately 3:00 p.m., police identified that woman as Muhlaysia Booker, the transgender woman beaten in the parking lot outside her apartment in South Dallas on April 12 as a crowd looked on and cheered.

That attack occurred after a minor car accident. Booker told police she had accidentally backed into another car in the parking lot, and that the other driver had pulled a gun on her, refusing to let her leave unless she paid for the damage. A crowd soon gathered, and someone paid a man, identified as Edward Thomas, $200 to beat Booker, laughing and jeering and videoing as he assaulted her.

Thomas was arrested and faces charges of aggravated assault/hate crime. He was not in jail when Booker was murdered.

Read more: https://www.dallasvoice.com/murder-victim-identified-as-trans-woman-muhlaysia-booker/

The video of the April 12 beating went viral.