News (USA)

Man stabbed trans woman while shouting slurs. He just got what he deserved.

A man holding a knife
Photo: Shuttertstock

After a violent attack back in 2020, a transgender victim of a horrific stabbing is finally receiving justice.

Her attacker, Samuel Huff, has been sentenced to five years in prison for the hate crime after pleading guilty to second-degree attempted assault as a hate crime.

Related: 2 trans women were attacked in NYC while making a film about anti-trans violence

The attack started when Huff entered a Brooklyn bodega and noticed the woman and her friend inside the deli. He then followed them across the street before stalking them in a liquor store, according to the district attorney.

Before attacking the victim, Huff first verbally attacked her by calling her a “t****y” and then came at her with a knife, stabbing her in the shoulder and requiring the woman to get seven stitches when she was taken to the hospital.

Huff then verbally attacked the victim according to the New York Post. “What are you doing here? You’re not supposed to be here? You are a t****y,” the attacker said before calling her another expletive.

At first, the victim tried to ignore the assailant, authorities said, but he continued to follow her outside the liquor store to a BMW with her friend. Huff didn’t stop threatening the woman and her friend, hurling transphobic insults and threats.

Huff continued shouting at the woman. “You’re a t****y. You’re an [expletive]. Get the [expletive] out of here,” prosecutors said.

That was when Huff attacked. He came at the victim with a knife, stabbing her in the shoulder, and then ran off. It was five days before he was apprehended for his malicious assault. He was taken into custody after the bodega provided security footage and Huff was identified.

District Attorney Eric Gonzalez said, “Hate has no place in Brooklyn’s diverse communities, and this shocking and unprovoked act of homophobic violence underscores the importance of vigorous hate crime prosecutions to deter anyone who may consider acting on their bigoted views.”

He went on to say, “Our dedicated Hate Crimes Bureau relentlessly pursues cases against those who victimize our neighbors because of their perceived race, sexual orientation, gender, ethnicity or religion, and we are deeply committed to preventing these despicable offenses in Brooklyn.”

This is certainly not the first time transgender individuals have been targeted in New York.

Back in 2019, two transgender activists were attacked in the streets of New York City one weekend while they were working on a film about violence against transgender people.

Norma Ureiro and Bianey Garcia, the filmmakers, were recording a video in Queens when they got into an argument with a man and a woman. The man and woman shouted anti-transgender slurs at them.

The woman, Paola Custodio, then pepper-sprayed the activists, getting Ureiro on her chest and Garcia on her back. After Custodio was arrested, the man then pepper-sprayed Garcia in the face. The attack forced her to go to the hospital.

At the time, Garcia said, “This time it was only pepper spray but next time it could be a knife or a gun.”

Unfortunately, Garcia was prescient to know that these attacks would continue and become more extreme.

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