Dallas police investigating if assault on transgender woman was a hate crime
(Trigger warning - video has scenes of a woman being beaten)
Investigators are reviewing the video of an assault on a Dallas woman described by police as transgender to determine whether the attack is a hate crime.
"Known suspects" assaulted the woman after a minor traffic accident at an apartment complex Friday, Dallas police said in a statement.
The suspects are reported to have used homophobic slurs during the assault and police are working to determine whether it will be classified as a hate crime, the statement said. No information on the suspects was immediately available and no arrests had been made.
Officers were called to a Dallas hospital at 11:23 p.m. Friday after the victim was injured in the assault. Police said the incident was caught on video.
Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said he had viewed the footage.
"I am extremely angry about what appears to be mob violence against this woman," Rawlings said. "Those who did this do not represent how Dallasites feel about our thriving LGBTQ community. We will not stand for this kind of behavior."
The assault victim was discharged from the hospital and was staying with a friend, CNN affiliate KTVT reported.
A man described as the victim's father told NBCDFW that she has been attacked before but this is the most violent. He described the attackers as cowards.
"This don't need to happen to nobody else's kid, so we pray that everything comes out justifiable. We know the Lord works in mysterious ways," Pierre Booker said.
By Hollie Silverman and Susannah Cullinane, CNNThe-CNN-Wire via ™ & © 2019 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.
The Gayly. 4/14/2019 @ 9:09 a.m. CST.