Killer May Be Targeting Transgender Women

Police are looking for a man suspected in two separate attacks on transgender women, authorities said.

The man who shot and killed a transgender woman on a Hollywood street may have been the same man who held up and shot at another transgender woman in West Hollywood about 40 minutes later, police said.

Hollywood homicide detectives released a sketch of the man Saturday.

He was seen robbing the woman in Plummer Park just minutes after Nathan Henry Vickers, 32, who preferred to be called Cassidy Nathan Vickers, was shot and killed at the corner of Lexington and Gower, a Hollywood area known for prostitution.

Vickers was found just before 10 p.m. Thursday near Lexington Avenue and Gower Street, LAPD Officer Cleon Joseph told City News Service, and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives believe the victim was standing in the area when the suspect walked up and shot her, Joseph said. The suspect fled on foot.

Another African American transgender woman was the victim of an attempted robbery about a mile away, in Plummer Park in West Hollywood, around 10:45 p.m. the same night, said Sgt. Chris Tatar of the sheriff's West Hollywood station.

Tatar said the victim was walking inside the park when she was approached by a suspect who demanded her purse. She refused and he fired one round with a black small caliber semi-automatic handgun before fleeing the scene.

According to Los Angeles police, the Hollywood murder suspect is African American with medium complexion and light facial hair. He is in his late-20s and stands between 5 feet-9 inches and 5 feet-10 inches tall.

The man has skin tags around his eyes and matted hair covered by a knit cap with a one- to two-inch wide bill.

Tatar also described the West Hollywood suspect as a black male -- but 40 years old -- with a 5-foot, 8-inch build weighing 240 pounds.

He was last seen wearing a black “some type of baseball hat" and all-black clothing, he said.