Around 2am Thursday K. c. Haggard was walking along a Fresno street when an SUV pulled up and engaged K.c. in conversation through the passenger side window. Suddenly the occupant of the vehicle reached out of it to stab K. c. in the neck...and then drove off. The murder was caught on video from a surveillance camera outside a tattoo parlor. I have chosen not to share that video.
Haggard was later pronounced dead at Community Regional Medical Center.
Fresno police described Haggard as a man named Kenton, even though K. c. was wearing a dress and cardigan and carrying a purse.
Fresno police Lt. Joe Gomez said the department refers to crime victims by their physiological sex and will only note a person’s transgender status if that information will help the investigation.
Gomez said investigators have received no information indicating that Haggard was transgender.
Gomez added that police also have no reason to believe that Haggard was killed because of appearance or possible transgender status.
KC Haggard is a transgender woman who was walking on Blackstone when she was approached by a tan-colored SUV. This person called her over to his car.
The brutal and disturbing images of KC Haggard being stabbed and left to die are heartbreaking. I know Fresno PD is doing everything they can to locate and arrest the animals who did this. It’s my hope that anyone who has any information will call detectives.
This is an outrage because in our community there’s a monster on the loose. These animals that were in the SUV made the decision that they were going to take an innocent person’s life. I’m pleading with people that if you know who did this, these people need to be taken.
--Fresno City Council member Clint Olivier
Rachel Bowman, a transgender woman who helps organize the annual Fresno Pride Parade, said if a person was dressed in female attire, then that person should be called transgender or a woman, unless it’s Halloween. She said law enforcement should make the decision on the side of the person being transgender.
This still points out that there’s a lot of discrimination, and there’s still a lot of work to do. As activists, we’re all trying to improve transgender rights and respect.
--Bowman
Karen Adell Scot is a transgender woman from North Fork and the director of TransCare, a transgender education and activism website. As a former sheriff’s deputy and military veteran, Scot said the Fresno Police Department is following an old style of policing regarding transgender people.
They need to label transgender people properly so that they can have their investigation reflect the proper gender of the transgender person, and so that they can have their investigation aided by the transgender community.
--Scot
The police released more information yesterday, this time describing the 66-year-old Haggard as transgender, making her the 11th transgender woman murdered in America so far this year.
The FBI will be assisting with this investigation and will help determine if this was, in fact, a hate crime.
--Fresno Police Chief Jerry Dyer
The vehicle has been identified as a silver Saturn SUV with a moon roof and Bondo on its right side. Police have learned that the driver picked up a prostitute and took her to a hotel room around 10 hours after the murder. Both that woman and her pimp have given descriptions of the man.
The suspect was described as a Hispanic man in his mid-to-late 30s. He was around 5 feet 9 inches tall and 150-160 pounds with tattoos on both arms and short, dark hair.
Police intend to search that hotel room for fingerprints and DNA of the suspect.
Police say that interviews with Haggard's roommates have indicated that she has become addicted to both meth and crack. Police believe she may have been prostitute.
Dyer said that the victim’s brother told police Haggard began to dress like a woman about six months ago, but he didn’t ask why because he was “too embarrassed.” Police have no evidence that Haggard was transgender, and by the end of the news conference Dyer was referring to the victim “Mr. Haggard.”
We are so often targeted for who we are. People are frustrated that this is happening again and again and again. We are often hated, misgendered, ostracized, violently attacked, and murdered.
--Scot