Va. trans woman victim of brutal mob attack

A transgender woman was brutally beaten May 21 in the parking lot of a 7-11 convenience store in Fredericksburg, Va.

A woman and two men began an argument with the 32-year-old victim before taunting her and throwing her to the ground, witnesses told police. The victim then was surrounded by several people and struck with hands, feet and a discarded metal broomstick, police reported.

Friends, neighbors and witnesses to the beating told local reporters they were shocked at the senseless brutality of the attack.

“I’ve never seen anything so malicious as the attack on her,” said a neighbor. “They did what they did to her because she is transgender.”

“We’re all like family and we watch out for each other,” said another neighbor and friend of the victim. “We are downright pissed at what happened to her.”

According to witnesses, the beating was stopped by a group of neighbors who confronted the assailants.

The victim described her assailants, provided license plate numbers for two suspect vehicles and identified one of the male attackers by a street name.

Eighteen-year-old Fredericksburg resident Laqueta Webb has been taken into custody and charged with malicious wounding by mob in connection with the incident. She is behind bars at Rappahannock Regional Jail under no bond. 

Virginia does not have an LGBT-inclusive hate crime statute.

The incident follows closely on the heels of the beating of a transgender woman at a McDonald’s restaurant near Baltimore. A video of the beating taken by a restaurant employee was widely viewed on the Internet. Two teens have been indicted on hate crime charges along with several assault charges in that case.