Dallas police arrested a man Sunday night in the beating of a transgender woman that authorities called an apparent “act of mob violence” and a possible hate crime.
Relatives of the victim, who authorities have not identified, told NBC Dallas-Fort Worth that she was kicked and beaten to the point of unconsciousness.
The Dallas Police Department said officers arrested Edward Thomas 29, for his alleged role in the Friday night assault that occurred after a minor traffic accident at an apartment complex south of downtown.
“The guy just got out and started stomping on her and kicking her and fighting her,” the woman’s grandmother, Debora Booker, told the station. “I was like, ‘Over a car?’”
Clips of the video published by NBC Dallas-Fort Worth showed a group of people carrying someone.
The victim told officers that her assailants, who were not identified, used homophobic slurs, the department said.
The department was examining evidence to determine if a hate crime occurred, the statement added.
In a separate statement, Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings said he had seen the video and was “extremely angry about what appears to be mob violence against this woman.”
“Those who did this do not represent how Dallasites feel about our thriving LGBTQ community,” Rawling said. “We will not stand for this kind of behavior.”
According to a report from the Human Rights Campaign, more than half of the 22 transgender people killed in the United States last year died in the south.
Since 2013, 95 percent of the 128 transgender killings documented in the United States involved victims who were women, the group said.
More than 100 of those victims were people of color, according to the report.
