Victim Number 17: Trans Woman of Color Murdered in Missouri

Tamara Dominguez of Kansas City, Mo., is the latest transgender American murdered in 2015, in a brutal killing that police have not labeled a hate crime.

Dominguez, 36, was seen by witnesses stepping out of a black Chevrolet Avalanche SUV August 15t 3 a.m., according to Kansas City TV station KCTV. Police told the station the male driver then struck her with the vehicle and ran over her body at least two more times.

Friends and family laid flowers at the scene of the crime, near the parking lot of a church, in her memory.

A friend of Dominguez's, Juan Rendon, translated a message of forgiveness from her Spanish-speaking brother, Alberto, who was in tears.

Her murder brings to 17 the number of transgender Americans killed this year, all of them women, most of them women of color.

Three African-American trans women were reported murdered just in the past few days. The Advocate has compiled the latest information on the previous 16 women murdered, and you can read about them here.

Anyone with information about the Dominguez case is asked to call the KCPD's TIPS hotline at 816-474-TIPS (8477).

Watch KCTV's report on the murder of Tamara Dominguez below.

KCTV5