Last week, three trans influencers- Eden Estrada, Jaslene White Rose and Josyln Flawless- were assaulted by six men while they were waiting for their Uber on Hollywood Boulevard.
The men stole the women’s wallets, phones and purses and bashed one of them unconscious. A video of the assault was filmed on Instagram live by an onlooker and in it, the assailants can be heard laughing and using anti-trans slurs as the women struggled to retrieve their belongings and later get help. At one point, one of the men hurled a scooter at one of the victims who was on the ground.
“The cops stopped, looked and kept driving,” Estrada wrote on her Instagram stories. “My heart sank I thought this was it.”
In the Instagram story, two of the women can be heard pleading for the men to leave them alone.
“You wanna talk about Black Lives Matter,” they said. “And you’re just making fun of another Black life that’s on the floor?”
The incident was being investigated as a hate crime. On Monday, two men, Carlton Callway and Willie Walker, were arrested in connection to the assault. The same night, Eden posted a video on Instagram and said that the DA had suddenly rejected their case on the basis that there was not enough evidence. Everyone connected to the assault has been released from jail.
Eden Estrada, who goes by Eden the Doll on social media, has nearly half a million followers on Instagram and has used her platform to speak out about the attack.
“Women like this get murdered on the f-cking daily,” she wrote on her Instagram story. “I know how lucky I am. But how about those who aren’t?!!!!”
A GoFundMe page has been set up to help the women with legal and medical fees.