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This article contains descriptions of violence against trans women.
After previously being indicted on federal hate crime charges, a Texas man has been indicted on additional charges for a string of assaults against transgender women.
On Oct. 23, 30-year-old Salih Ali Mohammed Alhemoud was indicted on six felony charges, according to court records reviewed by the Houston Chronicle. In 2022, Alhemoud was indicted on charges of hate crimes, kidnapping, and brandishing a firearm in connection to one of the assaults. He has now additionally been charged with aggravated assault, aggravated robbery, and evading arrest, per the Chronicle. The initial charges meant that if convicted, Alhemoud could spend up to life in prison, per the press release. According to the Chronicle, if Alhemoud is convicted on these new charges, he could face decades in prison.
Alhemoud reportedly committed multiple assaults and robberies during the summer of 2022, per the Chronicle. He used Grindr to set up a date with a trans woman on August 29 of that year, according to a Department of Justice press release from December 2022. When he arrived at her apartment, Alhemoud allegedly pulled out a gun and demanded her money and property, pistol whipping her when she said she didn’t have cash. He also reportedly called the victim homophobic and transphobic slurs, told the victim she was going to die, and said that she “was a demon like the others, all you trans people.” The woman was able to escape, and Alhemoud drove off after finding and taking her purse, which allowed her to use Find My iPhone to lead authorities to his apartment, per the Chronicle.
Weeks after the alleged assault, the victim was contacted by other trans women who said that they were also attacked by a man they met on social media, the Chronicle reports. Two people claimed that Alhemoud came to their shared apartment in July 2022 after reaching out to one of them on Instagram, saying he yelled slurs and pulled a gun on them. A separate group of three people alleged that in September 2022, they were in an apartment with Alhemoud when he threatened to kill one of them and stole some of their belongings. He was arrested shortly after this incident when drivers in downtown Houston called the police after he reportedly threatened two people with a gun for honking at him. Upon the authorities’ arrival, a high-speed chase ensued, ending in a crash. Alhemoud was taken into custody where he has remained since then. Alhemoud was scheduled to be arraigned in federal court in Houston on Tuesday.
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