Tracy Williams threatened to end her relationship with her boyfriend just hours before she was found murdered in a parking lot along the Katy Freeway, Houston police said Tuesday.

The boyfriend, Joshua Dominic Bourgeois, 25, over the weekend was charged in her death. At a press conference Tuesday, Houston police revealed more details leading up to the transgender woman’s slaying and the arrest.

Williams’ killing is the third of a transgender woman in Texas this year, and the 16th of a transgender person in the nation since January, according to earlier reports. Of those victims, all but one were black women.

The killing did not appear to be a hate crime, police said, because it stemmed from a personal dispute. Investigators credited the LGBTQ community for the wave of tips that eventually led them to Bourgeois. Police also said he engaged in a “number of volatile verbal arguments, as well as some physical altercations” with Williams during their three-month relationship.

“Without folks trusting us and calling in with tips like they did in this instance, not only would we may not have solved this, we may not have [Williams’] identity,” said Houston police Commander Michael Skillern.

In the early morning hours of July 30, Williams was found dead with multiple puncture wounds and lacerations.

Her death left a void in the transgender community, including at Montrose Grace Place, where she attended dinners for youth experiencing homelessness, according to LGBTQ advocates after her death.

Williams’ mother, Joyce Williams, also spoke at the press conference, saying her child wasn’t homeless and shared a lease with a friend at the time of her death. Joyce Williams also acknowledged that her daughter sought help at shelters and resource centers for people in Houston’s LGBTQ community.

She was grateful for the community’s information that helped find the suspected killer.

“That same community was around him every day, even if he wasn’t with me or his brother,” she said, misgendering Williams.

Joyce Williams added that her child was an “all around good kid” who wanted to make everyone laugh.

After the wave of tips from the community, Houston police said they found Bourgeois playing basketball at the Young Adult Resource Center in Midtown. When they brought him to their headquarters, he requested an attorney, and investigators told him he would be charged with murder, police said.

Police said Bourgeois knew Williams was transgender. He was homeless and may have stayed with her at times, police said.

Williams threatened to end their relationship the evening of the murder, and he threatened her in turn, police said.

During the press conference, police said domestic violence is a major issue in the LGBTQ community, especially among transgender women of color. That’s why department liaisons on a regular basis talk to community members about personal safety and reporting crimes, police said.

Police also used the recent killing to show they don’t discriminate homicides.

“It doesn’t matter to us if you’re a member of Houston’s transgender community, if you’re a resident of River Oaks or if you’re homeless,” Skillern said. “We treat all homicides exactly the same.”

Hannah Dallinger contributed to this report.

julian.gill@chron.com