A transgender woman was found dead after being beaten. Her family is speaking out now that the person cops say killed her has been arrested in Miami Beach.
A press statement says that Gregory Fitzgerald Gibert, 53, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection with the death of 37-year-old Andrea Doria Dos Passos. Police identified Dos Passos as the person whose body was found outside of the Miami City Ballet on Tuesday morning.
A police report that HuffPost obtained says that a member of staff at the Miami City Ballet saw Dos Passos lying on her side near the building’s main door and tried to wake her up but thought she was asleep. When the worker looked more closely, she saw blood around her and called the cops.
The police who arrived “found trauma and blood” on Dos Passos’ head and face. The police said she was dead at the scene.
Dos Passos had injuries to her face and the back of her head, and “two wooden sticks” were stuck in her nose, according to a closer look. A hole had been made in her chest as well.
The affidavit used surveillance video to show Dos Passos arriving around midnight and lying down. The video then shows a guy, who is thought to be Gibert, walking up to Dos Passos “and starts to hit her several times in the head and face with the metal pipe.”
After this, the man in the video is seen leaving and throwing the metal pipe into a trash can, which police later found.
Police caught Gibert wearing the same “unique” basketball shoes and red shorts that were seen on surveillance video. “There were what looked like bloodstains on both the shoes and the shorts,” the statement said.
Vic Van Gilst, Dos Passos’ stepfather, told ABC station WPLG that she had been having mental health problems for a long time and that they had not talked in two weeks before she died.
He said, “I knew this would happen someday.” “Andrea was a woman. At first, we thought it might have been a hate crime.
The Human Rights Campaign and the Flamingo Democrats, Miami Dade County’s LGBTQ Democratic Caucus, are two groups that have spoken out against the killing of Dos Passos.
In their letter, the Flamingo Democrats asked the State’s Attorney to add a hate crimes charge to the second-degree charge that was already there.
According to the press release, Miami Beach Police Chief Wayne Jones said, “There is no evidence to suggest that Andrea was targeted because of her sexuality or gender.”
Wayne said, “We stand ready to work closely with the Miami Dade County State Attorney’s Office to make sure that this case is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”
NBC station WTVJ reports that Miami Dade Judge Mindy Glazer told Gibert’s lawyer on Thursday that there was likely cause for a more serious charge.
“After reading the arrest affidavit, I think it should have been first-degree murder instead of second-degree murder. Based on the facts stated in the affidavit, he is said to have hit the victim in the head and face with a metal pipe and then defiled the body by doing other things to her after she died,” Glazer said.
Van Gilst told WTVJ that he thought the system had let down his stepdaughter.
He said, “I think the system let her down.” At this very moment, I also feel like I let her down. This is not fair for anyone. “No one should have to die this way.”
