Dozens march in honor of transgender woman killed in Fresno last year

Saturday, August 13, 2016
Dozens march in honor of transgender woman killed in Fresno last year
KC Haggard was stabbed exactly a year ago and her friends said it's especially tragic because she was just starting to accept who she really was.

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- It's been one year since the killing of KC Haggard -- a transgender woman who was stabbed to death in northwest Fresno.

Community member held a candlelight vigil Friday to honor the Haggard's life.

"She was stabbed right there in the street," transgender advocate Karen Adell Scot said. "She stumbled forward the car sped away and she tried to flash for help and no one helped her and she died alone in the dirt and the dark. "It's horrific but it should have never happened in America, but it did."

On the streets of northwest Fresno, community members marched quietly from Fresno City College to Blackstone and Cornell Avenues where Haggard, a 66-year-old transgender woman was murdered.

"KC haggard was living her life," Scot said. "She was real she was true and she was authentic she had finally started being her real self after living her entire life living falsely as male."

Police said Haggard stumbled several feet before falling after being stabbed and now a memorial in the colors of the transgender flag now sits at that spot.

Zoyer Zyndel organized this memorial to remember the beloved woman who, he says, had just started honoring her true self.

"What's unfortunate is that we didn't get to see her grow and develop into the person she has always been," Zyndel said.

While the transgender community continues to grieve Haggard's death investigators continue to search for the person responsible for the crime.

It's a crime that police said was committed by a suspect in a light-colored -- possibly silver -- 2000 to 2005 Saturn SUV.

"It's time it stops," Scot said. "Transgender people are human beings."