Two Charged in Trans Woman’s Attack

Advocate.com

Two suspects have been arraigned on assault charges after allegedly attacking a transgender woman in Queens, N.Y., on Wednesday.  Nathaniel Mims, 25, and Rasheed Thomas, 22, are charged with attacking Carmella Etienne, 22, in St. Albans, a neighborhood in Queens. According to police, the two hurled bigoted slurs and threatened to slash her throat as they pelted her with rocks and beer bottles.

Etienne said the attackers told her that the police didn’t care about her and that they were immune to any force. They were eventually arrested at the scene, according to NY1, where Thomas said he was unaware that he and his friend “could get locked up for calling somebody names.”

“I called her a bunch of names,” he said, according to the New York Daily News. “I called her a [expletive deleted], but she didn’t see me throw anything.”

Etienne was treated at a local hospital for a large cut and later released.

The men are being held on $5,000 bail and are due back in court on July 23. They face up to 15 years in prison for the attack.

Another transgender woman was attacked about a month ago in Jackson Heights, a northwest neighborhood in Queens.

<in addition to the above advocate piece, note the following>

The incident comes on the heels of a nearby Jackson Heights assault where a transgender woman was beaten by two men with a belt buckle. Thirty-year-old Leslie Moran says her attackers repeatedly called her “faggot” in Spanish as they beat her. Two men, Trinidad Tapia, 19, and Gilberto Ortiz, 32, have been charged with assault in the second degree. The transgender rights group Transgender Legal Defense & Education Fund (TLDEF) and other advocates have urged authorities to charge the men with hate crimes enhancements.

“There’s mounting concern in the community and anger at the violence and prejudice,” Brendan Fay, a leader in the LGBT community in Queens, told the paper. “Clearly these aren’t isolated incidents.”