Mourners held a vigil Sunday afternoon for a transgender woman who was murdered last week in Dallas.
Police found 26-year-old Carla Patricia Flores-Pavon unconscious in her apartment Wednesday afternoon in the 6100 block of Lyndon B. Johnson Freeway.
She was transported to an area hospital, where she was pronounced dead.
Dallas police told NBC 5 that Flores-Pavon was choked, which ultimately led to her death.
Monica Roberts, a board member of Dallas-based Black Transwomen Inc., attended Sunday's vigil at the Cathedral of Hope on Cedar Springs Road and expressed disappointment that the murder was not being handled differently.
"These murder cases tend to be exceptionally violent and we fail to understand in the community why they aren't classified as hate crimes," she said.
Police said a witness saw an unknown Latin male leave Flores-Pavon's apartment shortly she was found unconscious. However, no arrests have been made.
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"As people are educated about the issues of transgender folks, either on the transfeminine or transmasculine spectrum," Roberts said. "Acceptance follows along."
