D.C. police investigating threats against Casa Ruby
D.C. police are investigating an incident on Tuesday, Aug. 25, in which two unidentified suspects allegedly made threats to do bodily harm against Casa Ruby Executive Director Ruby Corado outside the Casa Ruby headquarters on Georgia Avenue, N.W.
In a video posted on Facebook, Corado said one or both of two women made what she believes were death threats against her and another Casa Ruby employee after Corado approached the two women as they were hurling anti-transgender and homophobic slurs at the Casa Ruby employee, who is a transgender woman.
Casa Ruby is an LGBTQ community services center with a special outreach to the transgender community and the LGBTQ Latino/Latina community.
Corado told the Washington Blade one of the two women making the threats identified herself as the grandmother of a female teenage Casa Ruby client who identifies as a lesbian. Corado said the woman identifying herself as the client’s grandmother was asking about the client’s whereabouts.
When a Casa Ruby employee told her the building was temporarily closed and the woman would have to come back later in the day to inquire about her granddaughter the woman became irate and began making threats and shouting anti-LGBT insults at the employee, according to Corado.
Corado said she arrived on the scene and approached the two women shortly after the incident began. She said she called the police after the woman claiming to be the client’s grandmother and the other woman with her continued to make threats and refused Corado’s request that they leave the Casa Ruby parking lot, where the incident unfolded.
A police report obtained by the Blade says the incident occurred outside the Casa Ruby building at 7530 Georgia Ave., N.W. The report identifies the two individuals who allegedly made the threats only as Suspect 1 and Suspect 2 and does not disclose their gender.
“S-1 and S-2 were outside of the listed address demanding a supervisor,” the report says. “When W-1 [Witness 1] advised S-1 and S-2 that the building was closed, S-1 and S-2 began to get upset and made threats and hate-bias comments to W-1 and V-1 [Victim 1]. The report identifies Corado as Victim 1.
“Both S-1 and S-2 stated that ‘I’m going to fuck you up’ to V-1,” the report continues. “After S-1 and S-2 continuously mis-gendered V-1 by calling her and other client/employees a man, V-1 asked both suspects to ‘stop and leave because this is a safe place.’ S-1 and S-2 stated that they were going to come back,” the report says.
The report adds, “V-1 believes that they are going to come back to harm her. Suspects last seen going south bound on Georgia Ave. in red car DC Tag #GH0881.”
The report doesn’t give a physical description of the two suspects, and Corado also did not provide a description of the suspects in her Facebook video other than to say they were women.
Corado told the Blade on Wednesday the two suspects were African-American women who appeared to be in their 50s. Corado said shortly after she informed the women that the police were on their way to the Casa Ruby building the teenage client came out of the building and got into the women’s car and all three drove away.
The police report lists the offense allegedly committed by the two suspects as a misdemeanor “Threats to Do Bodily Harm.” It classifies the incident as a suspected hate crime motivated by “Anti-Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, or Transgender” bias.
Published at Wed, 26 Aug 2020 18:51:22 +0000