Samson Tequir. (Facebook)
In the latest flare-up amid the Black Lives Matter protests continuing to seize major US cities, a Black trans man was left with his jaw and eye socket shattered after two men brutally beat him up.
Samson Tequir, 30, who helps organise demonstrations in Rochester, New York, was assailed last Friday afternoon (July 31), law enforcement said.
Surveillance footage from a nearby storefront captured the rattling moment when two males hurl anti-LGBT+ slurs at Tequir outside Big Town Grocery at Denver Street and Parsells Avenue on the city’s east side, then, while walking home with bags of groceries, everything went dark.
He was unconscious. Medics said he was likely struck more than once. Tequir awoke to the sounds of his friend yelling, the dialling of police.
Tequir, now wearing a black eyepatch in his home, told Democrat & Chronicle that, following the attack, he now needs titanium plates inserted to repair a broken eye socket and suffered multiple fractures to his cheekbone.
Male 2: Wearing a white tank top, dark shorts, and a white shirt on his head.
If you know the males, please call ☎️CrimeStoppers☎️ 423-9300.
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— Patrol_Section_Investigations_RPD (@RPD_PSI) August 1, 2020
Trans Black Lives Matter demonstrater brutally beaten by two men: ‘My story is not new.’
“My story is not new,” he reflected.
“It is not the last one, and I can look around the room I am in right now and find more of those stories just the same. The only reason you are hearing about it is because people happened to know my name.”
It was warm when Tequir and his partner left to grab Gatorade and water. Watching his partner go inside the grocers, Tequir described, he said two men down the street began to yell.
They lobbed abuse at him, saying “I couldn’t stand on the corner like that”, and shouted: “I had to get off his corner with that gay [expleitive].”
The men drew closer and “they told me that I shouldn’t be dressed like that, I had to get out of here with these gay clothes and all that.”
After Tequir said he would not leave until his partner was done shopping, the men, he said, then went into the Big Town Grocery and were hostile towards Tequir’s partner.
Tequir said that the pair focused on getting back home while the men lurked behind them, but the men struck Tequir’s head, hurling him into unconsciousness.
“The preliminary investigation revealed that the victims were approached by two suspects who engaged in a verbal altercation with the victims regarding one of the victim’s sexual orientation,” read a statement released by the Rochester Police Department.
“The Rochester Police Department is investigating this incident as a potential hate crime and is consulting with the Monroe County District Attorney’s Office.”