Florida police have arrested two men in connection to a vicious assault on a group of LGBTQ+ women in November.
Jorge Giovani Estevez, 33, and Daiken Fernandez, 25, were detained Wednesday and charged with battery with prejudice, WTVJ reports. Fernandez was charged with a felony, whereas Estevez was not.
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Several lesbians and one transgender woman were with friends when they were viciously assailed in Wynwood, Fla., following an event held on November 26. Video obtained by police showed two men verbally accosting the women before they began throwing punches. The women are heard calling out for help as the men attack.
One of the victims identified Fernandez as the man responsible for punching her friend several times in the head before knocking her unconscious, as well as punching and knocking to the ground another friend, who sustained a concussion and required stitches.
“This group of guys, basically, they just started screaming stuff at us, anti-lesbian comments, like, ‘you’re only lesbians because you haven’t received actual’ and he used a profanity word … out of nowhere,” one of the women told local television station WTVJ at the time.
The group pleaded with the men to stop in the video, while warning that they had contacted law enforcement. Another man intervened at one point to stand up for the women and was then also targeted by the attackers.
One victim described being struck in the jaw, which left her with a hairline fracture that may require surgery, as well as recurring nightmares about “seeing my friend on the floor non-responsive with blood.” The woman who was knocked unconscious stated that she was unable to recall the events clearly due to her injuries.
Many of them said that they were “targeted” for their sexuality.
“I definitely felt targeted for sure, I mean they were definitely trying to hate on the fact that we were gay,” said another victim. “I don’t know why, I don’t understand to this day why.”
