- The
LAPD confirmed that two suspects have been arrested after a robbery, assault, and hate crime against YouTuber Eden the Doll and 2 Black transgender women. - The investigation was aided by viral videos that showed the influencer and her friends being robbed and attacked on
Hollywood Boulevard early Monday morning. - Footage of the incident was posted publicly on Instagram. The person who posted the videos later locked their social media accounts.
- The LAPD, with support from the local LGBTQ community, is continuing to search for a third suspect.
In a Thursday press conference, the LAPD confirmed that two people have been arrested in connection with the robbery and assault of transgender influencer Eden the Doll and two other Black transgender women early Monday morning on Hollywood Boulevard, CBS reported.
Videos posted to Eden's Instagram story show the three women were robbed and beaten on the street as passersby watched. The LAPD is classifying the attack as a hate crime.
"I was robbed, attacked and jumped in Hollywood last night," Eden wrote on her story after the incident took place, writing that she was "VERY lucky" but that the two women with her, Jaslene White Rose and Joslyn Flawless, were "really hurt."
Eden then posted footage that appears to have been taken by an associate of the alleged assailants and posted to his previously public Instagram page, which is now set to private along with the rest of his social media accounts.
—Def Noodles (@defnoodles) August 18, 2020
29-year-old Carlton Callway's arrest was announced Thursday, and Willie Walker was arrested Wednesday after being identified in the footage, CBS reported. The LAPD is searching for a third suspect, identified as Davion Williams.
Detectives at the press conference said they worked with LA's LGBTQ community to find the suspects, and dozens of demonstrators marched down Hollywood Boulevard on Thursday in support of the three women, CBS reported.
A group of men could be seen mocking and harassing the women, robbing them, and throwing a scooter at them
In the videos, Eden, who has 340,000 Instagram followers, is seen standing on Hollywood Blvd with Rose and Flawless. At least 6 men appear to be in the group that began harassing Eden, Rose, and Flawless. Eden wrote that a man stole her phone while the three were waiting for an Uber, at which point she began chasing him to try and get the phone back, videos show.
In the next video, one of the men begins screaming obscenities and threats at the women. Eden wrote, "We initially tried to get [the phone] back but his friends started throwing rocks at us. We tried to run away but they chased us down." The women can be seen confronting the man who threw rocks.
In the next video, a man chases the three women into the street, where they appear to be attempting to get a driver's attention. As the car drives away, the man steals one of the women's purses and runs away. He appears to have thrown that purse back.
—Def Noodles (@defnoodles) August 18, 2020
Then, as the group confronts the man, he hits Rose and takes her bag, at which point he runs away again and the men filming can be heard shouting "Let's go get them." Numerous cars and pedestrians are seen walking and driving past the incident, and Eden wrote that the group chased them down in cars of their own.
In later videos, one of the men roughly throws Eden's phone to the ground, where she says it broke. Rose falls to the street while chasing after him. The men recorded themselves stealing the purses from the women, as well as mocking and verbally harassing them with transphobic remarks, comparing Eden to the male characters in "White Chicks."
One of the men can also be seen in the videos throwing a large electric scooter at Rose. In subsequent videos, Eden is seen trying to buy her phone back from the men. "My phone has all my videos and family pictures I haven't backed up. I was desperate," she wrote, writing that she gave the man who stole it "all my cash."
—Def Noodles (@defnoodles) August 18, 2020
Then, in the same spot where Eden is seen bargaining for her phone, one of the assailants returns and attacks Rose. Eden wrote that he "bashed [Rose's] head open" and that Rose fell unconscious for a period of time before waking up. The men filming can be heard saying "She's dead" and "Hit her again."
Eden can be heard asking the men to call the police and they mock her. Sirens are heard approaching and the men say "They coming," and then a police car approaches the intersection where the men are standing before driving away. Eden wrote "More people keep walking past us. No one is stopping no matter how much I begged."
Eden compiled all the footage in a tab on her Instagram page.
At the same time Eden was attempting to wake Rose up, Flawless appeared to be robbed by another man in the group, which was also filmed. The caption of that video, which appears to have been taken by one of the man's associates, says "He mad she was a man."
In her description of the attack, Flawless wrote "He held a crow bar to my face and threatened to kill me unless I stripped my shoes off and gave him my jewelry and all my processions [sic]. He said if i was trans he would kill me. He then forced me to hold his hand while he looks for my friends to kill them for being trans. Meanwhile men and WOMEN screaming that I'm a man and telling him to beat me."
In the video, the man appears to be holding the crowbar Flawless describes, and she visibly removes her shoes, which he kicks to the side before taking her hand and leading her further away from the camera, toward a brightly lit food vendor where bystanders are standing. A voice in the background says Flawless is "a boy."
Violence against transgender women, particularly Black transgender women, has been a devastating persistent trend in the US. As of July 14, 2020, the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) recorded the killings of at least 21 transgender or gender non-conforming people this year in the US. According to the HRC's data, this marks the most violent deaths in the transgender community at this point in the year since 2013, when the organization first began tracking them.
Transgender and gender non-conforming people are at a higher risk than other populations for violence and violent death. The HRC says "a toxic mix of
The footage attracted attention from celebrities and other influencers
The footage has drawn attention from across the influencer community.
Beauty YouTuber Jackie Aina posted about the attack on social media, as well as musician Zhavia Ward and trans YouTuber Blaire White.
"This is the reality of how trans women of color are treated," Ward wrote in her post. "This footage was recorded by the men on one of their lives and posted for their entertainment. These men humiliated them, robbed them, threw scooters at one of them, knocked one of them unconscious and busted her head open, one pulled a knife on one of them and threatened to kill her. This is not okay and will not be tolerated."
In Rose's livestream, one of the women can be heard sobbing in the background and saying "I thought she was dead."
"I got hit in the back of my f---ing head with a bottle because I was trans," Rose says, sobbing. "I was robbed. They took all of my s--- [...] You know what happened before I even got f---ing hit? I asked so many people for 911 [...] Nobody would call 911."
"No one even gave a f--- clearly, because then when I got hit in the back of my f---ing head and I fell to the ground, do you know what they did? Everyone crowded around me, laughing at me, recording me, telling me that I deserved that because they thought that I tricked a man and that was why he was beating me up. But in reality I'm just a f---ing tr---- that was walking in the street and a man decided to rob me and hit me in the back of the f---ing head with a bottle."
- Read more:
- TikTok star Dixie D'Amelio addressed rumors that she 'fakes seizures for attention' and opened up about her struggles with anxiety and a rare condition
- An influencer who was criticized for throwing a massive party with strippers and over 100 guests gave the middle finger to his haters
- Makeup YouTuber NikkieTutorials opened up about being robbed at gunpoint by 3 people who invaded her home
- Videos show a massive influencer's birthday party with over 100 guests and strippers was reportedly broken up by the LAPD