Police in Gloucester, Massachusetts, want to charge three teens with assaulting a transgender teen. The teen says he was hit and called slurs during the attack.
In Gloucester Juvenile Court, the Gloucester Police Department asked for assault and battery charges to be brought against two male teens and one male sixteen years old, according to a news statement.
Police said in the report that the investigation did not lead to evidence that would support prosecuting someone with a hate crime. Their lawyer told CNN that the alleged victim and his mother are hoping that things will change.
The teens, who the police have not named, will now go to a hearing where a clerk judge will decide if there is enough evidence to bring the charges, the news release says. It is not clear when the meeting with the clerk magistrate will happen.
The release says that on August 30, police were called to a party in the woods because of a report of an attack. The release says that one “young” man was taken to a nearby hospital to get treatment for his injuries.
The news release doesn’t name the victim, but 16-year-old Jayden Tkaczyk told CNN station WCVB that he was stomped on, punched in the face, and called homophobic names during the attack.
Craig Rourke, Tkaczyk’s lawyer, told CNN that the “severe beating” left him with “serious nervous damage” and “lacerations and contusions,” such as black eyes. Rourke also said that Tkaczyk had been bullied at school in the past.
The police department said that their investigation, which included a Massachusetts State Police officer trained to look into hate crimes, “did not ultimately support hate crime charges.”
Tkaczyk’s lawyer and family want hate crimes to be charged because they say the attackers used racial slurs.
WCVB heard Tkaczyk’s mother, Jasmine Tkaczyk, say that her son told her that they were using the F-bomb while stomping on his face. She said, “I don’t know how anyone can justify that and say that’s not a hate crime.”
When they chased me into the woods and said the same thing, Tkaczyk told WCVB, “Especially because they were calling me that slur and worse slurs.”
Rourke told CNN that they were “happy that the charges are being brought” and “hopeful that hate crime charges will be brought in the future.”
Rourke said that Tkaczyk was “kicked off and targeted for being who they are.”
“Rourke’s team is hopeful that the magistrate will find probable cause for the charges,” he said. “The case will then move forward.” He said, “Hopefully, maybe that’ll put this incident to rest.”
A Democrat from Massachusetts, Sen. Ed Markey, had already spoken out against the attack on Tkaczyk.
He wrote on X in September, “There should be no place in our Commonwealth or our country for violence against trans children.” “We need to love, care for, and honor trans kids.”
A Manchester, Massachusetts-based LGBTQ group called North Shore Pride is led by Hope Watt-Bucci. She told CNN that she was “horrified” to hear about the attack on Tkaczyk. Watt-Bucci said that attacks on the LGBTQ community on the North Shore of Massachusetts were getting a lot worse. These attacks included “microaggressions, public displays of discrimination and hatred towards our community or physical violence.” The Justice Department says that in Massachusetts in 2022, there were 23 hate crimes based on gender identity. This is a big jump from the 10 and 11 hate crimes that happened in 2021 and 2020.
A spokesperson for North Shore Pride said, “We will continue to stand together and fight for the same rights and freedoms for everyone.”
