Dallas Police arrested a 29-year-old man in connection with an aggravated assault against a transgender woman in which the victim was shot several times.
An affidavit, released late Tuesday night, said the suspect, Domingo Ramirez-Cayente, admitted to shooting the victim.
The affidavit states that after hurling homophobic and transphobic slurs at the victim, the suspect allegedly drove up to her as she waited at a bus stop, drew a gun and shot her several times.
The victim was struck in the arm and in the chest but survived. She was able to recount details of the shooting attack Sunday from the hospital where she was recovering. Police also released video of surveillance footage that showed the suspect’s pickup truck.
Police said that they were able to identify the truck and arrested the suspect for multiple outstanding traffic violations, and during interrogation, he admitted shooting the woman.
Friday’s shooting follows three fatal attacks on transgender women in Texas this year — two in Dallas. Weeks after her beating was caught on tape, Muhlaysia Booker, 23, was found shot dead in Dallas on May 18, and a 33-year-old man was arrested in connection with her death and the deaths of two other women. Chynal Lindsey, 26, was found dead in a Dallas lake June 1, and a 22-year-old man was arrested as a suspect in her killing. Tracy Single, 22, was killed in Houston on July 30, and a 25-year-old man was arrested in connection with her death.
At least 18 transgender women of color, including the three in Texas, have been murdered so far in 2019, according to a count maintained by the Human Rights Campaign.
The violence against transgender women of color has become an issue in the 2020 presidential campaign. At an LGBTQ Presidential Forum in Iowa on Friday, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., drew attention to the violence faced by transgender women of color by reading their names as part of her opening statement.
Two other Senate Democrats running for president, Kamala Harris of California and Cory Booker of New Jersey, have used their social media platforms to speak out on the issue, and Booker brought up the issue in the Democratic debate in Miami in June.
“We do not talk enough about trans Americans, especially trans African Americans and the especially high rates of murder right now,” Booker tweeted soon after that debate. “It’s not enough just to be on the Equality Act, we need to have a president who will fight to protect LGBTQ Americans every day.”
