Remembering Our Dead

TDoR 2024 / 2024 / March / 16 / Diamond Brigman

Diamond Brigman

Age 36

16 Mar 2024
Houston, Texas (USA)
Shot

TDoR list ref: tgeu/tdor2024/16-Mar-2024/Diamond Cherish Brigman

Diamond was shot in the street by a man who pulled up alongside her in a vehicle. She died at the scene.

A courageous and compassionate witness stayed with a Black transgender woman who was fatally shot on a street in Houston on Saturday. Police are now asking for the public’s help identifying and apprehending the victim’s killer.

Diamond Brigman, 36, was found by police suffering from multiple gunshot wounds just after 1 a.m. in the 9200 block of Country Club Creek. She was later pronounced dead at the scene by paramedics called to the scene.

“The Houston Police Department (HPD) has launched an investigation thanks to crucial information from a courageous witness who stayed with Diamond until emergency services arrived,” HPD said in a statement released Tuesday.

Witnesses told investigators Brigman was standing by the side of the road when a white 2017 Chevrolet Malibu LT circled the area several times before it pulled up alongside her. A male passenger exited the car and fired multiple shots at Brigman before fleeing the scene in the vehicle, which was driven by another person.

Police believe they have recovered the vehicle used in the murder but are seeking the public’s help in identifying the shooter and those involved in the death of Brigman.

The suspect is described as standing 5 feet 5 inches tall, with a thin build, and wearing a gray hooded jacket.

In May 2024 Walter Daniel Saravia Palacios, 35, was arrested and charged with Diamond's murder.

A man was arrested on Tuesday in connection with the shooting death of a transgender woman killed in March in southwest Houston, according to the Houston Police Department.

Walter Daniel Saravia Palacios, 35, is charged with murder in the death of 36-year-old Diamond Brigman.

It happened on March 16 just before 1 a.m. on Country Creek Street. According to investigators, Palacios shot Brigman as she got out of his car. After she fell to the ground, he stood over her and fired more than 15 times.

We still don't know the motive.

Several people who witnessed the shooting called police and that helped homicide detectives identify Palacios. The victim's friends are grateful.

"I'm thankful for the people who followed him. I’m thankful for the people who took pictures of him and the people who had information about him," Verniss McFarland told us.

McFarland is the executive director of The Mahogany Project, a safe space offering resources to trans and queer people of color, where he said for years, Brigman found a place to belong.

"In the month that Diamond died, we experienced the attack of three trans people within our community," McFarland said.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, at least 32 people who identified as transgender were murdered in 2023. Eighty-four percent were people of color and 50% were Black trans women.

"Too many from the community are losing their lives to violence and these just aren’t numbers they’re people with dreams and families and the loss screams out for change," a close friend of Brigman's told us shortly after her death.

Now, they're hoping the arrest of Palacios will lead to justice.

"I would say it’s always hard when it comes to seeking justice of any kind, but especially cases like this," McFarland said.

Palacios is in jail right now being held on a $500,000 bond.