A 21-year old New York City transgender woman was violently beaten Saturday night while out with her friends. A group of men, after learning the women were transgender, brutally beat Islan Nettles so badly she was hospitalized. Nettles was on life support until doctors removed her ventilator. She died Thursday, according to reports.
UPDATE:Â Murdered NYC Transgender Woman Was Beaten In Front Of NYPD Police Station (Video)
Police say at least one of her attackers yelled homophobic slurs. The attack, one of dozens this year in New York City, is being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Nettles and her friends were in Harlem, near West 148th Street and Eighth Avenue.
Nettles “was taken off life support at Harlem Hospital after she was declared brain dead from injuries she suffered in the attack, cops said. She had been clinging to life since being rushed to the hospital late Saturday night, police said,” Mathew Katz at DNA Info reported:
A 20-year-old man, whose identity was not immediately released, was arrested in connection with the attack, police said. He was initially charged with misdemeanor assault, but cops said they expected to upgrade the charges on Friday.
According to Nettles’ LinkedIn page, she planned to work in the fashion industry, and had worked as an intern at Harlem design house Ay’ Medici.
“Fashion became a definite decision for my life after my first show with my hand designed garments in high school at the 11th grade,” she wrote.
Nettles also wrote on her LinkedIn page, “Creative,energetic, determined, social, positive and anti-violence are some words to describe myself.”
Also last Saturday, a straight couple and a friend who is gay became the victims of a violent hate crime in NYC’s Long Island City neighborhood of Queens, with their attackers shouting racial and homophobic slurs.
And last week, a same-sex couple walking home from a late-night movie in New York City’s historically gay-friendly Chelsea neighborhood were violently attacked by up to six men who surrounded them, physically beat them, and shouted homophobic slurs.
New York City has seen anti-LGBT hate crimes increase every year over at least the past three years.
Image via LinkedIn