The transgender woman beaten so badly with a Plexiglas board in Brooklyn last month that she suffered brain damage was released from the hospital Monday, according to an advocacy group.
Kimball "Kimy" Hartman had been hospitalized since the Oct. 12 attack, which is being investigated as a hate crime. The 28-year-old was walking on Bushwick Avenue with a friend late that Sunday when four men approached and started assaulting her, police have said.
Authorities said she was punched and kicked, then struck in the head with a Plexiglas board. Though she will be released from Bellevue Hospital Center's traumatic brain injury rehabilitation unit Monday, Hartman will require 24-hour home supervision, multiple daily medications and additional surgery to replace a portion of her skull crushed in the attack, according to New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless Youth, a group helping raise money for her continued treatment.
Authorities have released surveillance of the attack (above), though no arrests have been made.
Meanwhile, crimes against the LGBT community are up in New York overall, according to police and advocacy groups. Police say 29 such attacks were reported between January 2013 and May 2013, more than double the number reported in the same period the prior year.
Two weeks prior to the attack on Hartman, three men were shot at in Brooklyn after being taunted with anti-gay slurs. One of the men was wounded. A 21-year-old man was later arrested in the shooting and charged with attempted murder as a hate crime.
Following the arrest, Brooklyn District Attorney Ken Thompson condemned the violence.
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"In Brooklyn, everyone, regardless of their race, ethnicity, gender, religion, sexual orientation or sexual identity, must be treated with dignity and respect," Thompson said in a statement. "The victims in this case were minding their own business and had every right to believe they could safely walk the streets."
