Bi woman horrifically attacked in deli by man who thought she was transgender

A Staten Island deli cashier attacked a bisexual cisgender woman while calling her a “transvestite,” and now the woman is filing a discrimination lawsuit.

Jasmine Adams, 35, says that she was buying cannabis from the West Brighton Deli Grocery & Grill and that she had a misunderstanding with the cashier who was working there. He ended up macing her, dragging her by her hair, and kicking her in the head. Even though the attack was caught on video, police haven’t made an arrest yet.

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DeAndre Matthews, a student at SUNY Broome Community College went missing on February 6.

She was on the phone while making a purchase for someone else at the deli when the cashier got agitated, thinking that she was trying to haggle over the price.

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“I said it wasn’t about the price and that I was just trying to figure out what I was buying,” she recounted. “So I paid. But he sucked his teeth and got mad and me and threw [marijuana] on the floor.”

She asked for her money back, and she said that he shouted at her and accused her of trying to get him fired. He threatened to call the police.

“I said, ‘Call the cops! I just want my money back,’” she said. “Then I heard him call me a transvestite. I’m like, ‘Transvestite? I’m a whole female. I have lady parts.’”

That’s when the cashier maced Adams in the face. He then allegedly ran around the counter to get to her, so she grabbed a coffee pot and swung it at him. He grabbed her by her hair and dragged her out of the store, calling her a “bi**h” and pulling her down the concrete steps. Some people were outside recording the attack.

“Oh my God!” one person recording the attack said. “You don’t have to do all that,” another person said.

He then threw her on the ground and kicked her in the head.

“Next thing I know, when I opened my eyes, I was outside next to my car on the floor,” she said. “I said to myself that I gotta get outta here because I don’t know if he’s going to kill me.”

She drove off for a block but then had to stop and get help from some strangers to get home.

Adams called 911 and said that she was told that she had to go back to the store and call 911 there because it’s in a different precinct from her home. The NYPD says that she didn’t have to do that and claims that she volunteered to.

When she got back to the store and called 911, she said it took police four hours to show up and, when they did, they called the cashier “Mr. Fourth of July” as if they knew him.

She later found out that a video of the attack taken by the bystanders had been posted to Facebook.

Adams, a mother of two, said that she was traumatized by the attack and is angry that no arrest has been made, even though the attack was caught on video.

“I tried to suppress what happened,” Adams said. “It makes you feel vulnerable. I like to believe that I’m a strong woman. To me, I wasn’t so strong. It makes me feel weak.”

While the cashier has been fired, the New York Daily News reports that the deli has not helped police identify him.

She filed a lawsuit yesterday against the deli, alleging discrimination on the basis of perceived gender identity.

“Even if I was a transvestite, what does that have to do with anything?” she said. “Why were you so comfortable putting your hands on me? I wasn’t being aggressive. I didn’t have any weapon. I was a customer.”

Adams also said that police haven’t made the video public, so no one else can help identify the alleged attacker. The NYPD’s Hate Crime Task Force is involved, but Adams said that she has only been interviewed briefly once on the phone and that no one from the hate crimes unit has contacted her.

Adams said that she still partly blames herself for being at the store late, even though she knows it’s not logical. She said that her mother and her grandmother helped her get the strength to file a lawsuit.

“They said that what happened to you is not right and that you need to let everyone know that,” she said. “For me, it’s not about the money. Whatever my sexual preference is, it shouldn’t be questioned when I walk in the store.”