Suspects Charged in Attack on Brooklyn Trans Woman

Three months after a vicious assault that left 28-year-old trans woman Kimy Hartman of Brooklyn, N.Y., with permanent brain damage, two men have been charged with assault as a hate crime, reports neighborhood news site DNAInfo.

Mashawn Sonds, 25, and Tyquan Eversley, 17, are also each facing up to eight more charges, with Sonds, who is accused of swinging the piece of plexiglass that left Hartman with life-threatening head injuries, facing a first-degree assault charge. Police arrested both men Tuesday after an investigation that included surveillance video that depicted the pair at a bodega near the attack site. Two more suspects remain at large.

On the night of October 12, Hartman was reportedly punched, kicked, and beaten with garbage by four men. She was accompanied by a gay male friend who escaped uninjured. Their attackers reportedly yelled "We don't want faggots on our block" and also used the word "tranny" as a slur, according to prosecutors.

Hartman was rushed to the hospital in critical condition, and remained there until November 3. Because of her severe head injuries, she had to have surgery that left her with slurred speech, loss of memory, and facial bruising, according to DNAInfo. Weeks afterward she reported in a criminal complaint that she was still experiencing dizziness, headaches, and substantial pain. At the time, she had to take 10 medications a day, attend intensive rehabilitation sessions, and be constantly supervised at home.

Hartman was the third victim in an string of unrelated anti-LGBT assaults in Brooklyn in late 2014, which saw an unidentified gender-nonconforming person in the Bushwick neighborhood treated for minor injuries and released after a September beating and a gay man struck in the head with a hammer in October in the lobby of his Crown Heights apartment building by an unidentified assailant yelling antigay slurs.

Despite the ongoing effects from her assault and what she reports as the continued presence of homophobia on the streets of Brooklyn, Hartman told reporters in late November that she had already forgiven her attackers for their ignorance.

Both Sonds and Eversley have pleaded not guilty. They face up to 25 years in prison if convicted.