An MS-13 gang member has been charged this week with assaulting a transgender woman in a Los Angeles park – and officials say the assault is part of a disturbing trend, The New York Post reports.
Gabriel Orellana, 19, was charged with battery likely to produce great bodily injury in connection with the Thursday attack.
Members of the gang have been linked to violence against transgender women at MacArthur Park at least four times since August 2020.
Orellana and another suspect, who has not been charged, allegedly approached the victim, asked why she was there and yelled derogatory remarks before knocking her to the ground and striking the victim repeatedly in the head and torso, according to Deputy Dist. Atty. Richard Ceballos.
At one point the men yelled, “We don’t want gays in the park,” according to the report. The victim was treated at an area hospital and required stitches, Ceballos said.
According to a KTLA report, last year, prosecutors filed three counts of attempted murder against MS-13 member Donoban Fonseca, after stabbing two transgender women in separate incidents between August and October. He also allegedly physically assaulted one of the women last September.