Los Angeles Police Chief Jim McDonnell said Tuesday that considerable resources are focused on apprehending the people who repeatedly attacked a transgender store owner in the Westlake District.
Police have described a series of assaults against the woman as hate crimes, and they are requesting the public’s help in locating two young males suspected of assaulting the 61-year-old victim multiple times.
“I think certainly anybody who is the victim of a crime certainly feels that they would like to see more being done, particularly those that are involved in a series of crimes as this individual has,” McDonnell told reporters Tuesday morning.
“Our heart goes out to her for what she’s been through with five incidents in the course of roughly a month,” McDonnell continued. “We take these crimes very seriously. We have a lot of resources focused on taking these individuals into custody and holding them accountable for what they’ve done.”
He said one suspect, who was in custody when the latest attack occurred, was arrested by detectives on May 27. Police identified him as Samuel Parros, 30, who was booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, not a firearm, with great bodily injury. He remained in sheriff’s department custody at the Men’s Central Jail in lieu of $10,000 cash bail, according to online jail records Tuesday.
The individual in custody was listed as “Suspect 2” in the surveillance images circulated by the LAPD.
The victim said the suspects stole $30,000 from her, and one of them twice pointed a gun at her, but it did not fire.
The first alleged crime took place April 8, when a suspect entered the victim’s store, flirted with her, and later punched her to the ground after she rejected his advances, according to the Los Angeles Police Department.
The suspect later discovered the victim was a transgender woman and sexually assaulted her before he pulled away and threatened to kill her, police said.
The same suspect allegedly returned to the location multiple times with additional suspects and committed hate crimes against the victim, which involved one of the suspects striking the victim with a skateboard, deploying pepper spray and throwing an unknown liquid substance at the victim as another suspect attempted to stun her with a Taser.
Police believe the same individuals returned to the victim’s location around 11:40 p.m. Saturday and physically assaulted her, inflicting “serious injuries.”
The suspects left the scene before police arrived.
Detectives from the LAPD’s Rampart Division Robbery Section believe there may be additional victims, and the department released surveillance photos of the suspects to encourage those individuals to come forward. The photos can be viewed at x.com/LAPDPIO/status/1929281011046547882.
Anyone with additional information regarding the crimes was urged to call detectives at 213-484-3495. Calls during non-business hours or weekends should be made to 877-527-3247. Tipsters who prefer to remain anonymous can call Crime Stoppers at 800-222-8477 or visit lacrimestoppers.org.
