Police arrest man over death of trans woman Muhlaysia Booker, and are investigating him over death of Chynal Lindsey

A 33-year-old man has been arrested in the killings of three women in Dallas, including a transgender woman whose death brought nationwide attention, police said on Wednesday.

Kendrell Lavar Lyles has been charged with three counts of murder in the deaths, including last month’s slaying of 23-year-old trans woman Muhlaysia Booker, Maj Max Geron of Dallas police said.

Lyles was being held without bond in the Collin county jail in McKinney. He has no attorney yet to speak for him.

The 5 June arrest came after tips from the public led police to Lyles as the suspect in the deaths of two women in the Collin county section of north Dallas, Geron said. Authorities have not disclosed the names of those victims, but further investigation led them to the Booker killing in Dallas county, south-east of downtown Dallas.

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Detectives found that Lyles’s car matched the description of the one witnesses reported seeing Booker enter on 18 May, the night she was later found dead, Geron told reporters.

“We don’t know the motive at this point. We know that the meeting for one [Collin county] murder was, according to the witness, to engage in a drug transaction. The reason for the shooting is still unknown at this point,” Geron said.

Lyles also is being investigated in connection with the death of the 26-year-old trans woman Chynal Lindsey, whose body was found on 1 June in White Rock Lake in Dallas, Geron said.

Before Lindsey was found dead, police officials had said they were investigating a possible connection between the shooting deaths of Booker and another trans woman, 29-year-old Brittany White, as well as the non-fatal stabbing of a third trans woman.

Detectives continue to investigate the White killing last October, Geron said.

Booker’s death came a month after a cellphone video showed her being brutally beaten in a separate incident. Police have said that no evidence was found to link Booker’s death to her 12 April beating following a minor traffic accident.

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According to a police affidavit, the other driver involved in the accident had a gun and refused to let Booker leave until she paid for the damage to his vehicle. A crowd gathered and someone offered a man $200 to beat her. Other men also struck her, while one stomped on her head. Booker suffered a concussion, fractured wrist and other injuries, police said.

Video of the attack, which was shared on social media, showed Booker being beaten as the crowd hollered and watched. Edward Thomas, 29, was arrested and jailed on an aggravated assault charge.

Thomas’s attorneys have issued a statement saying Thomas was not involved in Booker’s death and sending condolences to her family.