Spokane LGBT Community Seeks Justice in Attack on Transgender Woman
Police in Spokane have released a surveillance photo of two men wanted for questioning about an assault of a transgender woman following widespread calls from the LGBT community for police action.
Sporting a black eye, Jacina Carla Scamahorn described her attack Monday at a public meeting of the Spokane City Council before a near-capacity crowd of 150 supporters.
The attack has ignited fury and calls for prosecution across the LGBT community, with at least one witness telling a Spokane television station that the victim, who is homeless, “was targeted because she is a transgender woman,” KREM-TV in Spokane reported.
Word of the attack last Friday at a downtown bakery quickly spread quickly through social media after the Spokane Human Rights Commission called it “brutal, horrifying incident.”
“What happened to Jacina is appalling and I hope that the perpetrators of this hateful act of violence will be brought to justice and charged appropriately,” Blaine Stum told Hatewatch today.
Detectives, who interviewed the victim prior to Council meeting, have yet to call the assault a “hate crime” or make an arrest, but on Tuesday they released a still images from a surveillance video of two white men who are possible suspects.
Police spokeswoman Monique Cotton said the department was “in the process of investigating the facts surrounding the incident” and couldn’t comment further, the newspaper reported.
The assault occurred right across the street from the offices of the Peace and Justice Action League of Spokane, a nonprofit that focuses on issues of peace, economic justice and human rights.
“An attack anywhere is unacceptable but I find myself especially troubled by an attack taking place across the street from our offices and in a business whose owners have gone out of their way to support equality, the freedom to marry, and the recognition of everyone’s full humanity,” PJALS director Liz Moore said in a prepared statement.
