Police in Arizona are investigating a brutal assault on a transgender teen at a west Valley apartment complex. Up to 20 people were involved in the attack which occurred at a pool party near 35th and Dunlap avenues on August 16th. 18-year-old Dakota Kern has identified as a woman for five years, she says she was invited to the pool party but she didn't know everyone there. Soon after arriving to the party, Kern says that people started calling her and two of her friends homophobic slurs.
<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;margin:0 auto;"><iframe width="360" height="202" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/UzRRFhtW5fw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
<span style="margin-top:15px;rgba(42,51,6,0.7);font-size:12px;">Credit: 3TV/CBS 5</span>
As Kern her friends were leaving the party, a man shouted "get it, get it" and that's when a group of around 20 people attacked her. The video shows Kern being surrounded and repeatedly punched and kicked while she is on the ground. Kern described the attack saying "Then one of the guys, he ends up grabbing me by my head, grabbing me by my hair and then he hit me a few times." One of her attackers filmed the assault and circulated it on social media.
Thankfully, the attackers weren't very bright for filming it and the video will provide evidence to investigators trying to determine their identity. Kern says, "I passed out, hit my head on the concrete. My friend was above me like slapping my face like ‘hey, come on come on, get up so we can go.'" Phoenix police have a special crimes unit for bias crimes which handles cases where the crimes are in part due to prejudice toward a specific individual or group.
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