McDonald’s Transgender Hate Crime Attacker Finally Charged With Hate Crime

One of two teens who was arrested for the vicious attack on Chrissy Lee Polis, a transgender woman, at a Baltimore, Maryland-area McDonald’s in April, has finally been charged with a hate crime. Eighteen year-old Teonna Brown, who was arrested last year for assault in the exact same McDonald’s, today was arraigned with five charges, including first and second degree assault on Polis, and second degree assault on Vicki Thoms, the only person at that McDonald’s who attempted to intervene. Brown’s unnamed fourteen year-old accomplice reportedly has been charged with the same crimes, but as a juvenile. 

(Brown can be seen in the photo above, and in the video below, dragging Polis by the hair from the back of the McDonald’s to the front.)

“They really hurt me really bad,” Polis said, just one week after the attack, which she said was “definitely a hate crime.” Polis also said, “I’m just afraid to go outside now because of stuff like this,” and promised to sue McDonald’s as well.

As the incident began April 18, a McDonald’s employee, later fired, filmed the violent attack, which you can see below, and later posted the video on YouTube and reportedly to his Facebook page. The video shows McDonald’s employees did nothing to stop the attack, and actually laughing. The McDonald’s manager did little more than yell, “Stop!” Only one customer, Vicki Thoms, a middle-​aged woman — who subsequently also got pushed and kicked — made any attempt to aid Polis.

The three-​minute video depicts Polis, a 22-​year old transgender woman, being kicked in the head repeatedly, and dragged across the floor by the two teenaged assailants. Once the attack stops, Polis rests against the wall, only to be kicked again. Then, as her attackers, Teonna Brown and her unnamed accomplice, appear to be leaving, they return and continue the assault, literally dragging Chrissy Lee Polis from the back of the restaurant all the way to the front door. Polis has a seizure and convulsions as the beating continues.

“She having a seizure, yo. … Police on their way. Y’all better get out of here,” an unidentified man can be heard saying.

Exactly one week before the hate crime beating, the Maryland Senate effectively killed the Gender Identity Non-​Discrimination Bill, also known as HB 235, which would have protected transgender people in housing, banking, and employment. While the bill would have had no direct impact on this incident, the Maryland Senate sent Maryland citizens a strong message by killing the bill.

Watch the video.