Muhlaysia Booker, a 23-year-old trans performer who used the professional name Cashmere and modeled for the Grooby Productions Black T-Girls site, was found shot to death early Saturday morning, according to a report by The Dallas Morning News. Her murder comes just a month after Booker was the victim of a horrifying assault in a Dallas parking lot—an assault that was captured on a bystander’s cell phone video and quickly went viral online.
But police say that they have no leads or suspects in the murder and are not currently aware of any connection between Booker’s slaying and the earlier assault, according to a CBS News report. Police also said that they do not have enough information to classify Booker’s murder as a hate crime.
One Dallas civil rights lawyer, Lee Merritt, told the Morning News that Booker’s slaying also raised concerns among members of minority communities about retaliation over reporting crimes.
One man, Edward Dominic Thomas, 29, was arrested and indicted in connection with the parking lot assault on Booker. But Thomas was freed from custody on bond earlier in May. Police have said that others may also face charges in the assault. The video shows Booker on the ground in the parking lot as multiple men punch and kick her, and at one point strike her with a brick. Police in April said that they were investigating whether Thomas had been paid by someone to assault Booker, according to a CBS report.
According to the Morning News, a person in the crowd reportedly offered Thomas $200 to beat Booker, who had been involved in a minor fender-bender car accident in the parking lot moments earlier.
Witnesses heard the attackers shouting homophobic epithets at Booker during the video-recorded assault, police said, adding they were investigating the assault as a hate crime.
Grooby, in a statement posted to the company's site, called Cashmere “one of our most popular debut models of last year,” adding that the company was “shocked and saddened to hear of her death.”
“We have to do better. As a society, as allies, as friends and as family. We have to do better to educate, to inform and to normalize,” the Grooby statement said. “We have to do better to stop this culture of violence that is being wreaked upon trans persons, and significantly in trans, persons of color. Each and everyone of us needs to look at what we can do to help end this scourge of hate against a group of people, just trying to live their lives authentically.”
Photo courtesy Grooby.
