DALLAS (1080 KRLD) - Police have arrested a man they say admitted to shooting a transgender woman in Northwest Dallas last Friday night.
They say Domingo Ramirez-Cayente, 29, admitted to the shooting after he was arrested on unrelated traffic charges Tuesday.
The woman was walking along the street, and police say Ramirez-Cayente pulled up next to her and yelled insults about gay and transgender people. The arrest warrant affidavit says the victim kept walking; Ramirez-Cavente pulled onto the curb and shot the woman several times in the chest and arm.
"We're hunted," says Leslie McMurray, the transgender education and advocacy coordinator at the Resource Center in Dallas. "We're in danger just walking up and down the street."
The victim is now recovering and has been talking with police. Ramirez-Cayente was charged with aggravated assault, and Dallas police say they are investigating the case as a hate crime.
McMurray says Texas does not include transgender people in its hate crime law. Texas law includes race, ethnicity, disability, religion and sexual orientation.
"I don't understand what the resistance is. I begged them to include it. They didn't. It didn't get out of committee, and 18 days later, Muhlaysia Booker was murdered," McMurray says.
