MPD detectives are investigating the slaying of a transgender person in Northeast D.C. Tuesday that may be a hate crime.

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The slaying took place in the early morning hours in the 6100 block of Dix Street in Northeast. The victim, who has not been identified, died from gunshot wounds.

Family and friends grieving for 23-year-old Myles McLean, a transgender woman known on the street as La Shai.

"He was a loving, loveable person he had lots of friends,” said McLean’s grandmother Teresa Renfrow.

Jason Coleman, who said the victim was his girlfriend, said he was with her last night. This morning, he got a phone call that his girlfriend is dead. “I went crazy," he said.

McLean was in an area known for drugs and prostitution. Her family members said she worked as a prostitute. She reportedly had an altercation on the street and a man shot her in the back.

“It's a high trafficking area, prostitution and drugs, it's very dangerous,” said a friend who calls herself Aqua Pryde.

Many friends were at a transgender help agency Wednesday. Its director Earline Budd called it a hate crime. He says people sometimes call the transgender women by homosexual slurs. He suspects McLean defended herself and then was killed.

Mayor Vincent Gray said police have not yet said it's a hate crime.

"It could be (a hate crime),” Gray said. “This involved a transgender (person) and so we want to investigate all possibilities."