ABC News(DALLAS) — Dallas police are investigating the vicious “mob” assault of a transgender woman on Friday and say it may be classified as a hate crime, according to authorities.
The alleged assault happened Friday afternoon following a minor traffic accident, according to police. The woman got out of her car near an apartment complex in south Dallas and an attack by multiple men followed.
Video of the attack quickly spread on social media, and was confirmed to be authentic by Dallas police.
“The Department is investigating this offense and reviewing all available evidence to determine if it will be classified as a hate crime,” police said in a statement.
The video shows the woman in a parking lot near the apartment complex when a man in a white long-sleeved T-shirt and white shorts runs up to her and slings her to the ground. He then pins her to the ground and starts raining left and right punches on the woman’s head. Several other men join in the assault, stomping and kicking the woman while she’s down.
The woman told police her attackers used homophobic slurs during the incident.
The woman told Dallas ABC station WFAA she suffered facial fractures and a right arm injury in the attack. She declined an on-camera interview.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said he was “extremely angry” about the attack.
“Chief [Renee] Hall alerted me this morning to the assault at the Royal Crest Apartments and I have seen a video of what happened,” Rawlings said in a statement Saturday. “I am extremely angry about what appears to be mob violence against this woman. I am in contact with the chief and she assured me that the Dallas Police Department is fully investigating, including the possibility that this was a hate crime.”
He added, “Those who did this do not represent how Dallasites feel about our thriving LGBTQ community. We will not stand for this kind of behavior.”
Dallas police thanked the public for its assistance, said it was canvassing the area and asked for anyone with information to call authorities.
Twenty-six transgender people, the vast majority women, were killed in 2018, according to tracking by the Human Rights Campaign. One of those women, 26-year-old Karla Patricia Flores-Pavón, was strangled in her apartment in Dallas on May 9.
Eighty percent of trans women killed in the past six years were women of color, HRC reports.
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