Dallas transgender murder victim laid to rest

DALLAS - Hundreds of people including Dallas city officials attended the funeral of a transgender woman whose murder remains unsolved.

Muhlaysia Booker was shot and killed two weeks ago. Police said her body dumped by a gutter on the back side of the Tennyson Park Golf Course in Far East Dallas.

Dallas Mayor Mike Rawlings was among the many people at her funeral at the Cathedral of Hope Church Tuesday.

Booker’s mother said she was always loyal to friends and family.

“Everybody didn’t have Muhlaysia back. Every time her back was against the wall. They turnt her back on my baby but she never turnt her back on nobody. She always came to defend others,” Stephanie Houston said.

Booker was also assaulted last month after a minor car accident in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Dallas. The brutal beating was captured on cellphone video and police ultimately arrested the man who was allegedly offered $200 to attack her.

Police do not believe the assault and the murder are related. Instead, they worry that her murder is similar to other unsolved attacks on transgender women in Dallas.