Post submitted by former HRC Digital Media Manager Helen Parshall​

This post was updated on May 18, 2018.

HRC is saddened to learn the death of Karla Patricia Flores-Pavón, a young transgender woman of color found dead in her apartment in Dallas, Texas, on May 9.

The Dallas Voice writes that police confirmed she was choked to death. While Flores-Pavón’s Facebook profile lists her first name as starting with a “K,” initial police reports have spelled her name with a “C.”

Dallas Police arrested 24-year-old Jimmy Eugene Johnson III yesterday, charging him with Flores-Pavón’s murder. According to NBC DFW, property belonging to Flores-Pavón was found in Johnson’s car during a traffic stop. Police said Johnson had been a suspect in Flores-Pavón’s murder and that the motive was robbery.

Friends and allies took to social media to mourn her death, many of them posting in Spanish. "It hurts a lot, you were a good-hearted person," said Gia York Herrera, in a translated Facebook post. “Sister, fly high. We will remember you with love. Your beautiful smile will stay with us.”

Flores-Pavón’s death is the ninth known homicide of a transgender person this year, and the second known homicide of a transgender Latinx person.

Since 2013, HRC has tracked 114 incidents of fatal violence against transgender and non-binary people. Of these, 64 have been victims of gun violence. In 2017, 16 out of the 28 deaths were the result of gun violence.

HRC Foundation and the Trans People of Color Coalition released a report documenting the senseless acts of violence that made 2017 the deadliest year on record for transgender people, particularly for trans women of color.

To learn more about HRC’s transgender justice work, visit hrc.org/Transgender.