Man and 3 Renton High School students attack trans woman, police say

Three Renton High School students and a 25-year-old man have pleaded not guilty to hate crime and second-degree assault charges after King County prosecutors accused them of chasing after, choking and beating a transgender woman until she lost consciousness earlier this month in Renton.

A witness captured cellphone video of the Sept. 15 attack which appeared to show Ramodre Edwards of Renton restraining the 39-year-old woman on the ground and in a chokehold as the three students, ages 15 to 17, repeatedly punched and kicked her in the head and torso, court records show.

Investigators who reviewed the 46-second clip said a 17-year-old boy kicked her four times, a 15-year-old boy punched her three times and kicked her twice, and a 16-year-old boy punched her a dozen times, according to a police report filed in King County Superior Court.

The woman later told police she thought she was going to die, according to court records. She was hospitalized with multiple broken bones in her skull, including her nose and eye socket, and bruising on her torso and face.

“I didn’t think that what they were doing was like beating me up,” she told investigators. “I thought they were going to kill me.”

The woman did not respond to inquiries Thursday.

A King County Superior Court judge granted prosecutors’ request to hold Edwards at King County Jail on $300,000 bail. The teens were ordered in separate hearings to wear electronic home monitoring devices and not to talk to each other, except for “incidental contact” at school and during sports activities, court records show.

Renton School District spokesperson Randy Matheson confirmed by phone on Thursday that the teens attend Renton High School.

The district has barred the boys from returning to school since they were arrested, and is doing its own investigation to determine whether they can come back or participate in activities including sports. The district’s investigation is expected to end by Friday afternoon, Matheson said.

We do want them to maintain their learning and not be removed from that, but activities and sports — those are privileges,” he said. “We always err on the side of making sure students have access to an education.”

In a social media post two days after the attack, Renton High School’s Gay Straight Alliance, an organization for LGBTQ+ students and allies, said it was a “tough time” for their community and school, which has “always supported kindness, respect and inclusivity.”

“You are welcome, you are valued, and you are never alone, the group wrote.

The attack marked at least the second time this year a group of men or boys have assaulted a transgender woman in the Seattle area.

In March, a man called a trans woman a “drag queen” and told her to remove her makeup shortly after she left work in the University District. He and three friends then pushed the woman to the ground and repeatedly punched and kicked her, court records show.

The woman fled to a nearby restaurant to ask for help, and customers there blocked the men from chasing her inside. Firefighters treated her for broken teeth, scraped hands, a bruised and swollen eye and abdomen pain, according to police and court records.

The victim in this month’s Renton attack described similar injuries in an online fundraiser she created to help cover the cost of surgeries and expenses while she cannot work. The fundraiser had raised nearly $34,000 by Thursday afternoon.

The woman told police she had just left a nearby bar and was waiting at the Renton Transit Center that night when she noticed a group of young men harassing people there, including a person in a wheelchair, court records show.

During her interview with police, the woman said she told the group to stop bothering people. One of them yelled to the others to “get” her, using a homophobic slur, and the group charged toward her, the woman said.

The woman told police she tried running away in the direction of the bar, but tripped. As she tried getting off the ground, one of her attackers yelled to “get” her again, calling her a transphobic slur, court records show.

Before she could stand up, the woman told police she felt someone grab her from behind and around her neck, placing her in a “rear naked choke hold” so she couldn’t breathe as others kicked and punched her. She felt herself passing out, her arms going weak and dropping to the ground so she could no longer try defending herself, according to court records.

The woman told investigators the only reason she thought her attackers stopped was because her body had gone limp as she passed out, court records show.

Someone called 911 shortly after 8 p.m. to report the attack. Bystanders directed Renton police officers to the woman, whom they found on the ground, moaning in pain. Her head was very swollen and blood was pouring from an injury near her eyebrow, an officer wrote in a court record.

She later told police her teeth went through one of her lips one of the times she was kicked, and that she suspected she also had broken ribs, citing extreme pain and difficulty breathing normally after the attack, according to court records.

A witness told an officer they had captured video of the attack on their cellphone.

Police reviewed the footage, which appeared to show four people knocking the woman to the ground, court records show. One person, later identified as Edwards, appeared to be on the ground and underneath her as the three others punched and kicked her, court records show.

At one point, the group appeared to pause, then continued striking the woman, according to a description of the footage in court records. They eventually stopped and the video appeared to show Edwards removing his arm from around the woman’s throat, pushing her away and standing up, court records show. The footage showed the four suspects gather their belongings and walk away, leaving the woman on the ground.

Minutes after the attack, an officer stopped a nearby 16-year-old boy who matched one of the suspects’ description. Not realizing he was one of the assailants, the officer let the teen go after he said he saw a fight happen but wasn’t involved, and that the victim was a “he,” a “dude” and a “she her,” according to court records.

Police found two other suspects, ages 15 and 17, several minutes later at the Renton Transit Center and arrested them. Both were wearing the same clothing as the people in the video and were standing about 350 feet from where the attack happened, court records show.

A Renton police officer who works as Renton High School’s school resource officer told administrators the next day that two students had been arrested, and a third was potentially involved, showing them a photo of the 16-year-old suspect. The teen arrived on campus later that morning, court records show.

An officer met with the 16-year-old’s parents Sept. 18 and showed them the video of the attack. His mother confirmed her son was the person shown repeatedly punching the woman. She brought him to Renton’s police station later that day, where he turned himself in, according to court records.

Edwards, accompanied by his father, also arrived at the police station several hours later to turn himself in.

Edwards’ father told police he confronted his son after seeing a post by Crime Stoppers of Puget Sound that had a photo of his son and said he was wanted for a hate crime. According to his father, Edwards said “dude ran into” him, but didn’t respond when asked whether he was an innocent bystander, court records show.

Officers interviewed Edwards, who admitted to running into the woman and said she scratched him at one point. He told investigators he blacked out and didn’t remember anything else until waking up at his parent’s house, according to court records.

Edwards said he’d practiced martial arts since he was 5 years old. When an officer asked him about specific moves he knows, Edwards first described a rear naked chokehold, the same move used to choke the woman, court records show. Officers arrested Edwards, who was booked into King County Jail.