Body of a black transgender woman pulled from White Rock Lake in Dallas
White Rock Lake, Dallas. (Wikipedia)
Dallas police are investigating after another black transgender woman was found dead in Texas, with police called to White Rock Lake on Saturday (June 1) evening after a passerby saw a dead body floating.
The police were called by a passerby at around 5.45pm. The body was pulled out of the lake by a Texas game warden, one of the first to arrive on the scene, who didn’t wait for police due to fears the body would float back into the lake.
The body was not immediately identified, but police and the Dallas County Medical Examiner’s Office today (June 3) confirmed the race and gender of the body. No other information has been released while police notify next of kin.
Police have not connected the White Rock Lake body to previous deaths of black trans women in Texas.
“Right now the police department is actively looking to see if these assaults and murders have any connection. We haven’t been able to affirm a link,” said Dallas police major Vincent Weddington.
A cause of death has not yet been confirmed but a press conference is expected to take place imminently.
At least six black transgender women killed in the US in 2019
Muhlaysia Booker, 23, was found shot dead in Dallas, Texas, early in the morning on May 18.
She was the fifth of six black trans woman known to have been killed in the US in 2019 so far, according to the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), which records violence against the trans community.
Their names were Dana Martin, Jazzaline Ware, Ashanti Carmon, Claire Legato and Michelle “Tamika” Washington.
Also on Saturday (June 1), a trans woman from El Salvador who was seeking asylum in the US died in a hospital in Texas. She became ill while detained for six weeks by Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Last year, 26 trans people, mostly women of colour, were violently killed in the US, according to the HRC.
