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The Los Angeles Police Department requested the public’s assistance on Monday in locating three men suspected of assaulting a 61-year-old transgender woman multiple times at her business in the Westlake district in what it calls a series of hate crimes.
Rampart Division Robbery Section detectives say they believe there may be additional victims and have released surveillance photos of the suspects to encourage those individuals to come forward following reports of a suspect entering the victim’s store on April 8, flirting with her, and later punching her to the ground after she rejected his advances, police said.
The suspect later discovered the victim was a transgender woman and allegedly sexually assaulted her before he “pulled away” and threatened to kill her.
Police stated that the same suspect had returned to the location multiple times with additional suspects and committed hate crimes against the victim, which involved one of the suspects striking the victim with a skateboard, deploying pepper spray, and throwing an unknown liquid substance at the victim as another suspect attempted to stun her with a Taser.
Anyone with additional information regarding the crimes was urged to call Rampart Division Robbery detectives at 213-484-3495. Calls during non-business hours or weekends should be made to 877-527-3247. Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or visit lacrimestoppers.org.
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