Two men were arrested in connection with an attack on a group of transgender women in Hollywood this week, police said Thursday.
The Los Angeles Police Department said Carlton Callway, 29, was arrested in Bakersfield in connection with a robbery and attack on the women, which police have called a hate crime. Also taken into custody was 42-year-old Willie Walker, a homeless man known to police in the area where the alleged attack occurred, LAPD Capt. Steve Lurie said at a news conference to announce the arrests.
A third suspect, Davion Williams, 22, is being sought. Investigators are not sure if the men know each other, Lurie said.
A video posted to social media showed a man threatening the three women on Hollywood Boulevard early Monday. The women, who go by Joslyn Flawless, Eden the Doll and Jaselene White Rose, have large social media followings.
The footage was widely circulated online, which helped investigators identify the suspects, along with a review of their social media accounts, Lurie said.
Police said one of the suspects approached the women around 2:15 a.m. Monday and offered to buy them merchandise, but then refused to pay and left.
Police said a man later approached Flawless with a crowbar and demanded her shoes and bracelet. He grabbed her hand and walked with her a short distance before letting her go, police said. He then assaulted one of the other women with a bottle and made “derogatory remarks,” police said.
Flawless posted a short video of the incident on her Instagram page.
“Scariest moment of my life,” she wrote. “He held a crowbar to my face and threatened to kill me unless I stripped my shoes off and gave him my jewelry and all my processions. He said if I was trans he would kill me.”
Bystanders can be heard off-camera taunting her.
Lurie said an investigation started after people complained that an LAPD cruiser was seen in the video but did not stop. Lurie said the cruiser was responding to another emergency.
Councilman Mitch O’Farrell, whose district includes Hollywood, expressed contempt for onlookers who filmed the incident but did not offer assistance or help.
“That is not behavior that is becoming of the City of Angels,” he said. “If you can’t abide by civil behavior toward one another in Hollywood, especially communities that have marginalized through the ages … You are not welcome here at all under any circumstance.”
