Police in Los Angeles, California announced Thursday that they’ve made an arrest in an attack on three trans women: YouTuber Eden Estrada (aka Eden the Doll), Joslyn Flawless, and Jaslene Whiterose, according to CBS LA.
Cops identified the suspect/defendant as Carlton Callway, 29.
Cops called this a robbery and a hate crime.
According to the police statement, the suspect approached the victims early Monday morning on Hollywood Boulevard and offered to buy them items from a store.
However, “the suspect refused to pay for their merchandise and the victims left,” officers said. But the man later approached one of the victims with a metal bar and demanded her shoes and bracelet, cops said. She complied; he grabbed her by the hand. They walked together before she managed to escape.
That account is in apparent reference to Flawless. From her Instagram account:
Scariest moment of my life. This is where i was while @edenthedoll and @jaslenewhiterose were crying for help. He held a crow bar 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. He then forced me to hold his hand while he looks for my friends to kill them for being trans. Meanwhile men and WOMEN screaming that I’m a man and telling him to beat me. Please help us find them. PLEASE
The incident was recorded and uploaded to social media.
Estrada told CBS Los Angeles people across the street yelled taunts using transphobic language.
In the police account, the suspect ended up attacking the one of the “original victim’s” friends using a bottle, knocking her to the ground. He made “derogatory remarks about their status during the crime,” police said.
Whiterose said she’d been the one who was hit.
“When I was waking back up, literally all I could see was all these lights, people with cameras, laughing at me, telling me that they wish he had killed me,” she told CBS. “That they were upset because I was still alive.”
“My friend is completely collapsed,” said Estrada. “I’m not a doctor. I don’t know if she’s breathing. I’m trying my hardest to help her. I’m begging people for help. I’m screaming for help.”
It is unclear if Callway has an attorney in this matter.
[Screengrab via CBS Los Angeles]