Los Angeles County prosecutors charged Carlton Callaway and Davion Williams with robbery and assault on Tuesday in connection with a violent attack on three transgender women in Hollywood last month. The assault was filmed on video by bystanders and contained hate speech. Authorities have labeled the attack a hate crime.
According to the Los Angeles Times, video captured during the incident shows Eden the Doll, a social media influencer with a large following, with her friends Jaslene Whiterose and Joslyn Flawless on the Hollywood Walk of Fame around 2 a.m. on August 17th. A man began verbally and physically threatening them, wielding a crowbar at Flawless and robbing her, before hitting Whiterose on the head. Per the Times, bystanders can also be heard in the background “heckling and taunting the women throughout the ordeal.”
The violent assault drew mass criticism against the perpetrators as well as towards bystanders who apparently looked on and filmed, but did not help the victims and instead mocked the women who were being assaulted. A rally in support of the transgender women took place in Hollywood following the incident.
Callaway was charged with grand theft, second-degree robbery, criminal threats, attempted second-degree robbery, assault by means of force likely to produce great bodily injury and battery with serious bodily injury, per a statement from the L.A. County district attorney’s office. Williams faces grand theft and assault with a deadly weapon charges. The men also face hate crime allegations.
If convicted under the current charges, Callaway faces up to 13 years and four months in prison, and Williams faces up to eight years and four months in prison. A third man was arrested in connection with the incident and was accused of trying to extort the women, but charges were not filed.