DALLAS — The Dallas Police Department is asking for people with information to come forward following the murder of 38-year-old Tiffany Thomas.
On April 24, police found the 38-year-old Black transgender woman dead from a gunshot wound at a car wash on American Way.
News of Thomas’ death is especially difficult for the transgender community, a community that has been hit hard by violence in recent years.
According to the Human Rights Commission, the were a recorded 44 deaths of transgender and gender non-conforming people in 2020 - more than any year since they started tracking in 2013.
“I ask myself, 'if her, why not me?” Robyn “Pocohantas” Crowe said.
Crowe, who is also a Black trans woman, was looking at new signs in Dallas’ Oak Lawn neighborhood, as police continue to work to get answers about Thomas’ death.
“I don’t even have to know Tiffany,” Crowe said. “Tiffany looks like the woman I am. So, just seeing her posted up on this wall, again - traumatizes me.”
This is just the latest murder of a Black trans woman in North Texas. In 2019, Muhlaysia Booker was found dead in far East Dallas. Later that year, police pulled Chynal Lindsey’s body from White Rock Lake.
“We all deserve a place in this world,” Naomi Green, a Black trans woman, said. “It’s horrible that we’re still at a point where we have these murders happening so often, especially right here in our backyard, especially given the work that the entire trans community here in Dallas is really trying to do.”
“It’s sad, it’s alarming, and it also makes you angry as well,” Green added.
Green said someone knows something and they need to come forward so police can make an arrest.
“This is somebody’s child. This is someone’s sibling. This is someone’s friend. This is someone’s relative, and you would want justice for your family and yourself, if it were you on the other end,” Green added. “Trans people deserve to live. We deserve life. We deserve equal opportunities. We deserve justice.”