More than two months after filing a police report over an allegedly transphobia-laced assault at a Staten Island deli, cisgender bisexual Black woman Jasmine Adams is still waiting for the employee who attacked her to be arrested and publicly identified. The incident’s latter half was captured on video, depicting a man dragging the 35-year-old by her hair, subsequently dumping her onto the street, and kicking her.
Adams promptly reported the incident as assault on July 28 and an NYPD spokesperson has said the investigation remains ongoing. Now Adams is filing a civil lawsuit against the West Brighton Grocery Deli & Grill to “find the guy who did it.”
“For the most part, I’m still trying to process what transpired, but I’m trying to be okay [and] come to terms with it—that it happened,” Adams said to the Amsterdam News.
“We brought the lawsuit for a few different reasons,” added her lawyer, Robert Brown. “Number one, to bring it to light just for the transphobic element…and this day and age, with the video, you really see how she was treated. It’s just despicable.
“We may never see money in this case, but part of it was to bring it to light so that the public would see, and hopefully the police department wakes up and does what they’re supposed to do.”
Brown, a retired NYPD captain, added that attempts to reach the deli about the incident were unsuccessful and the identity of her attacker remains unknown despite the video footage. He said there is “no excuse” for why the employee remains unnamed. The establishment’s listed phone number was not in service for comment at press time.
According to Adams, the encounter stems from purchasing marijuana for a friend at the deli, which she says doubles as an unlicensed dispensary. She was on the phone during the transaction, which she said probably contributed to a misunderstanding over price between her and the employee. Adams, who doesn’t smoke, asked for clarification for what she was buying, which set off an argument. She said the employee threw the cannabis onto the ground, claimed she was attempting to get him fired, and threatened to call police while Adams refused to leave without a refund.
The argument escalated, as recounted in the civil lawsuit complaint, to the employee calling Adams a “transvestite,” an anachronistic term for a male cross-dresser sometimes misused as a transphobic slur. Also noted in the filing was the pride flag-themed Apple Watch band on her wrist, which the employee allegedly observed. As mentioned, Adams identifies as LGBTQ+ due to her bisexuality, but is not transgender. She said this is the first time she has experienced this level of discrimination over her queerness.
After a back-and-forth about her gender identity, Adams said the employee pepper-sprayed her, which was detailed in the police report. She recalled hitting him with a coffee pot in self-defense. The next thing she remembers is opening her eyes and finding herself outside.
The gaps are filled by the footage, which Adams discovered after recounting the incident to a co-worker who saw it on social media and sent it to her. A screen-grabbed version of the Facebook video provided by Brown’s law office shows a man wearing a powder-blue Denver Nuggets jersey dragging a woman—presumably Adams—out of the deli by her braids, across the sidewalk, and onto the street. He then proceeds to kick her while she lies prone next to a black car. Bystanders are overheard in the footage admonishing the man, telling him he “didn’t have to do all that.” The attacker is seen dusting off his hands and returning to the deli.
Adams said she did not initially view the video.
“First thing I did with the video was send it to my mom,” said Adams. “I didn’t watch the video until maybe two days before I did the [recent] interview with the Daily News. And my mom was like, ‘That’s definitely you.’ And I cried.”
She identified the man who dragged and kicked her in the video as the same employee who had been arguing with her. Adams recounted trying to drive home afterward while her eyes were still burning and praying she wouldn’t hit anyone. When she ultimately felt she wasn’t safe behind the wheel, she flagged down passersby for help. Adams said a Good Samaritan couple gave her water and the wife subsequently drove her home in her vehicle while the husband followed in theirs.
Brown was critical of how the NYPD handled Adams’s subsequent police report. He said she was called back to the scene to file it, which the police department reportedly disputed as voluntary to the Daily News.
“Those police officers were supposed to take the report and then refer the report to the other precinct, not send her back,” said Brown.
Adams, who does not live near the deli, returned with friends and spoke with the officers, but did not go inside. She said she did not want to go back to the scene and felt ashamed. Both Brown and Adams said police took roughly four hours to respond. She said an NYPD detective called her in August about the video.
While cannabis retail is legal in New York City, only a handful of stores are licensed and most are in Manhattan. Last month, a City Council oversight hearing was held addressing unregulated smoke shops. A proposed local law mandating a public awareness campaign against such businesses currently has 35 sponsors.
Dr. Rich Blint, a James Baldwin scholar and visiting assistant professor of African and African American Studies at Dartmouth College, said he believes the incident belies the “long-articulated problems” of violence Black women historically face stemming from “concrete abstractions of human categorization,” which similarly influence anti-transgender attacks.
“We know that, across the world, attacks on Black trans bodies and trans bodies generally have increased exponentially, but we also know that…the least-protected people on this planet and certainly in the United States have always been Black women,” said Blint.
Brown said the ethnic identity of the deli employee is also unknown. Adams said she believes her race played a role in her treatment at the deli and with how police are handling her case.
Citywide anti-LGBTQ+ violence remains in the news over the past few months, including the Brooklyn killing of gay Black dancer O’Shae Sibley in August. Just over a week ago, three teenagers were arrested and charged for hate crime assault for allegedly attacking a 72-year-old man in Manhattan while making anti-gay remarks, according to the NYPD.
Adams said she has close family members who also belong in the LGBTQ+ community. “If I don’t stand up for myself, how can I teach them to stand up?” she asked.
Tandy Lau is a Report for America corps member and writes about public safety for the Amsterdam News. Your donation to match our RFA grant helps keep him writing stories like this one; please consider making a tax-deductible gift of any amount today by visiting https://bit.ly/amnews1.