Man held gun to transgender woman’s head and called her a ‘fag’
A man has been charged after holding a gun to the head of a transgender woman and using anti-LGBT slurs.
Jerome Curry Jr. was arrested on November 4 over the incident in Cincinnati, Ohio.
According to a police report, officers responded at 6:15am to a report that a man with a gun was threatening two transgender women.
The Cincinnati Enquirer reports that the man is believed to have approached the pair and held a gun to the head of one of the victims.
Transgender woman threatened, man arrested. (Stock photo)
Curry Jr. reportedly exclaimed, “You’re one of them, too,” and referred to the victim as a “fag.”
Curry Jr. is alleged to have aimed the gun at the second transgender woman, threatening to shoot her if she spoke.
The man was apprehended on the scene by Cincinnati Police Department officers, and a firearm secured by officers.
The suspect has been charged with aggravated menacing, criminal intimidation, and having a weapon under disability.
The case cannot be treated as a hate crime, as Ohio law has no provisions for hate crimes based on gender identity. The federal government is able to intervene in cases where no local protections exist.
Jerome Curry Jr. threatened a transgender woman.
Curry Jr., who has a previous drug conviction, is being held at Hamilton County Justice Center on a $100,000 bond.
According to the Cincinnati Enquirer, Curry was also charged in 2003 with unlawful possession of a dangerous ordinance after filling carbon dioxide cartridges with gunpowder.
In 2014, a transgender woman was shot dead on the streets of Cincinnati.
Tiffany Edwards, a trans woman of colour, who was found by a refuse worker after being gunned down in the middle of the street.
Quamar Edwards, no relation, turned himself in to police a week after the killing in June 2014. He pleaded guilty to killing Edwards in 2016.
Transgender people, and transgender women of colour in particular, are disproportionately likely to face violent crimes in the United States.
The cases of trans murder victims are still often handled in an insensitive and transphobic manner by police, a recent report alleged.
An investigation by ProPublica has found that transgender victims are still commonly referred to by their deadnames in the vast majority of cases.
The outlet reviewed the murders of 85 transgender people since January 2015, finding that in 74 of the cases, the victims were identified by their former names or birth genders.
Many forces insisted on using the name or gender listed on the victim’s ID, even when it is several years out of date.
