San Francisco Police Investigate Stabbing Of Transgender Woman Before Considering Hate Crime Charges
SAN FRANCISCO (KCBS)_ San Francisco police continue to investigate an attack on two transgender women that left one of them with a pair of stab wounds over the weekend.
Police Sgt. Monica McDonald told KCBS that officers were dispatched to the 600 block of Van Ness Avenue at the corner of Golden Gate at around 5:45 Saturday afternoon after reports that a fight that broke out on a Muni 49 Bus.
Two transgender women say they jumped on the bus in the south of Market area and were verbally harassed by a male passenger. When they finally disembarked, they say the man followed them, and stabbed one woman, identified as 24-year-old Samantha Hulsey twice in the chest.
McDonald said officers arrived at the scene and were able to arrest the suspect who was still there and was later identified as 54-year-old Brodes Wayne Joynes of San Francisco.
Hulsey was treated and released from San Francisco General Hospital for her two stab wounds. She said the attack was clearly related to her and her partner's transgender status, but McDonald said they have yet to unearth enough evidence to bring about an official hate crime charge.
One of the transgender women, Rae Raucci, posted a statement on Facebook following the attack, saying she remembers that the man started saying derogatory things to them.
"We were both on the bus together when a man across the way accused us both of defrauding him by pretending to be female," Raucci wrote.
Raucci wrote that the man harassed her and her friend Samantha, repeatedly calling the pair derogatory names.
The pair then decided to get off the bus to get away from him.
The suspect, however, also got off the bus brandishing a knife, Raucci wrote.
Joynes is being charged with two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of making threats. McDonald said they could add "hate crime" charges if new information about the case comes in.
"The case is currently not being investigated as a hate crime. For the incident to meet the elements of a hate crime, it has to be solely motivated towards a protected class," McDonald said.
She added that just because someone is yelling slurs as they commit a crime doesn't necessarily classify the incident as a hate crime.
