A trans woman reported she was assaulted by several men in the early-morning hours of July 26 at the corner of 15th and Sansom streets.
The woman, 28, told PGN she had left a nightclub event and was outside smoking a cigarette around 2:40 a.m. when several men in their mid-30s to early-40s approached and started talking to her.
“I don’t remember what they said,” she said, except one man kept screaming, “We’re going to fix you,” and she remembers one man swung a traffic cone and hit her in the face.
“He was looking at me like I wasn’t there,” she said, “like he was swinging at a baseball.”
Police spokesperson Sgt. Ray Evers said incident, categorized as a simple assault, was reported at 2:29 a.m. July 26 and that, according to the report, the victim had been kicked in the head by an unknown white male and had refused hospital treatment when the medic arrived.
Evers said the initial report did not note anything about a potential hate crime, but that it could be categorized as such after further investigation.
The woman said she sustained a concussion, a fractured nose and bruises to her face and body.
The victim said she declined to go to the hospital or leave the scene with police to give a statement because of previous negative experiences with emergency-room staff and police, though she did say she would press charges against any suspects.
She said she eventually got an appointment at a local clinic a week after the attack, where they confirmed her concussion and fracture.
The woman didn’t think she was specifically targeted, but was at the “wrong place at the exact wrong time.”
Patrick Rodgers, who was hosting an event that night at a nearby club and was there after the incident, was particularly disturbed by the attack.
“I’m sickened that this would happen in a progressive city like Philadelphia but especially angry that it occurred in the heart of Center City,” he said.
“I understand that LGBT liaisons from the Police Department and District Attorney’s office are investigating the matter,” he said. “There were several security cameras in the area, so I am hopeful that they will be able to identify and prosecute the thugs responsible for this reprehensible act of violence.”