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Dallas police are investigating the murders of three transgender women in recent months, and told reporters at a press conference Monday that they have asked the FBI for help.
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Chynal Lindsey, a Black trans woman from Texas, was found dead over the weekend. She was 26.
Lindsey’s body was found in Dallas’ White Rock Lake on Saturday, local ABC affiliate WFAA reports. Dallas Police chief Renée Hall says that her body showed “obvious signs of homicidal violence.”
Family members of Lindsey, who lived in nearby Arlington, were shocked and deeply saddened by the news.
"It's devastating,” a cousin told WFAA. "This was a person that I had never seen mad … I just can't see anyone hurting [her]."
“[She] was just smiling, smiling, smiling ‘cause [she] was so excited to see us,” another cousin told local CBS affiliate CBS 11 of the last time she saw Lindsey.
Local advocates for Dallas’ trans community were equally saddened, as well as concerned that this familiar kind of violence will happen again in their communities.
"There's personal anxiety that shows up because that certainly could have been me," Carmarion D. Anderson of Black Transwomen, Inc., told WFAA. "We just got done burying Muhlaysia [Booker], and now I get phone calls this morning about what's happened.”
Booker was found dead in Dallas on May 20 with a gunshot wound. Police have said she is the victim of “homicidal violence” but have not named a suspect. Along with Brittany White, who was found shot in a car last year, Lindsey is at least the third Black trans woman to have been killed in Dallas over the past 12 months. Authorities are investigating a possible link between Booker’s death, White’s death, and the death of an unidentified trans woman, WFAA reports.
“My heart is heavy. Who is going to be next?” Anderson continued. "We're in a crisis right now, and the crisis is are we safe to walk the block to the park? To walk our animals? To go to the store? To get gas? It's very scary."