Merci Mack was a 22-year-old Black transgender woman who was found fatally shot in Dallas on June 30th and became the seventeenth trans person killed in the United States in 2020. Mack was also the fourth Black transgender woman to be murdered during Pride month.
on april 9th, #MerciMack posted this picture on facebook to commemorate her 22nd birthday. yesterday morning, she was found shot to death in a dallas parking lot. another trans woman’s life stolen, and for what? because she dared to live it? pic.twitter.com/cWYjmGdMrN
— Kelley Rand (@kelley_rand) July 1, 2020
On Monday morning, a pedestrian contacted police and emergency staff after they found Mack’s body in the parking lot of an apartment complex in Dallas. Residents claimed they heard gunshots around 5am, but no one reported them until after her body was found. Merci was declared dead at the scene from gunshot wounds. Police reports used Mack’s deadname, or the name that she was given at birth rather than the one she chose after her transition. “Deadnaming” can be psychologically harmful to trans people and in the case of a murder, leads to misgendering a victim.
#MerciMack was a 22-year-old Black trans woman found dead in Dallas, TX.
Police + local media have verified that she’s trans, but are deadnaming her. Her death comes after Muhlaysia Booker and Chynal Lindsey in 2019.#SayHerName #BlackTransLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/qp0wW3UJlD
— Raquel Willis (@RaquelWillis_) July 1, 2020
#MerciMack, 22 trans woman, was found murdered in #Dallas on 6/30/20.
There’s limited info as the media, police, & family are continuing to deadname Merci.#LGBTQ #BlackTrans #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/rPofKcuxW2
— Black Lives Matter (@thxitsthetrauma) July 1, 2020
Merci Mack’s friends described her as a “young upbeat soul” who deserved to experience a full life.
another transgender woman was murdered yesterday in dallas. apparently in the past five years more transgender people have been killed in texas than in any other state. and dallas accounts for HALF of those deaths.
her name was Merci Mack. and she was 22.
— Codie (@auntie_codie) July 1, 2020
The state of Texas continues to lead the nation in its murders of trans people.
“We cannot become numb to the fact that our community has learned of more killings of transgender and gender non-conforming people in the past few weeks than HRC has ever tracked in the past seven years,” said Tori Cooper, the Human Rights Campaign director of community engagement for the Transgender Justice Initiative.
No one has yet been arrested or charged in the murder of Merci Mack. Police are asking anyone with information related to Mack’s death to contact Detective Brian Tabor at 214-671-3605 or brian.tabor@dallascityhall.com.
