June 18, 2018
Possible Hate Crime as Trans Woman Stabbed in Hollywood
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
A transwoman attacked in the early hours of June 14 by a knife-wielding assailant refused to go to the hospital for treatment of her wounds, media sources said. The assailant reportedly hurled an anti-trans slur before commencing the knife attack; the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
Few details were available, and the victim was not identified. An officer with the LAPD's Media Relations Division told the press that the attack took place at about 2 a.m. on Franklin Avenue, MyNewsLA reported.
The woman was walking by herself and speaking on a cell phone when she crossed paths with the assailant, whom she described to police as wearing a dark brown jacket, according to NBC Los Angeles.
News station ABC7 offered a few more details, saying that the assailant was described as being in his 20s. ABC7 also said that the attacker shouted, "I hate trannies!" He fled after stabbing the woman three times. All three wounds were to her arms, and the woman was treated at the scene.
Police described the victim as "not very cooperative" with the responding officers.
No arrests have been made in the case so far, and the attacker remains at large, news sources said.
Instances of anti-LGBTQ violence and harassment have increased sharply since the election of Donal Trump, with trans women - especially trans women of color - taking much of the brunt. 2017 was the deadliest year yet for transwomen, according to equality advocacy group the Human Rights Campaign, which tallied 28 trans deaths due to "fatal violence." The HRC also reports that 2018 has already seen a dozen trans death, many of them resulting from bias-driven violence.
Earlier this week a teenager in Kansas was sentenced for the killing of a trans woman he stabbed to death. The teen was sent to a juvenile correctional facility due to his age, but the Associated Press reported that if he should reoffend while in custody, he could face the kind of hard jail time handed out to adults - as much as 14 years in prison.
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
