Beating Shakes Neighborhood

Friends, neighbors and witnesses to the mob-like beating of a Bragg Hill area resident say they are shocked at the senseless brutality visited upon the victim during the weekend incident. 

"We're all like family and we watch out for each other" on their end of Hickock Street, where the victim lives, said a friend and neighbor of the victim. "We are downright pissed at what happened to her." 

Police say that a outside of a 7-11 on Fall Hill Avenue. Police say the 32-year-old victim was born male but is now living as a female. 

"It could be a factor, but we don't have a definitive reason," said Natatia Bledsoe, public information officer for the Fredericksburg Police Department. "The victim says that she has been harassed in the neighborhood because of her transexual status."

Bledsoe says that the victim, who lives near the 7-11, ", and that she no longer feels safe in her own neighborhood. 

"I've never seen anything so malicious as the attack on her," said a neighbor. "They did what they did to her because she is transgender."

The incident began as a woman and two men started arguing with the victim in the parking lot of the 7-11 on Saturday afternoon. Police say the three assailants surrounded the victim, taunting her before forcing her to the ground. Once on the ground, police say the victim was struck with hands, feet and a discarded metal broom stick. 

The victim denied medical treatment despite suffered numerous facial injuries as well as bruising on the hands and knees. 

Police say that it is possible that there may be more than the initial three attackers involved in the assault. 

"There may be more people who joined in once she was on the ground," said Bledsoe. 

"They were doing it with smiles on their faces," said a neighbor. "I'll never forget it, it was like a party to them."

Police say that they did receive a number of 911 calls reporting a large fight as the incident happened. According to witnesses who live nearby, the beating was stopped only after a group of neighbors confronted the victims assailants. 

The victim was able to describe her assailants, providing license plate numbers for two suspect vehicles and identifying one of the male attackers by a street name. Police believe all of the assailants to be local residents. 

Police have arrested and charged 18-year-old Fredericksburg resident Laqueta Webb with malicious wounding by mob. Webb is behind bars at Rappahannock Regional Jail under no bond. 

Police are meeting with another suspect and his attorney to discuss the incident later today. A third suspect remains at-large.

If the attack is determined to be motivated by the victim's sexual identity, it will likely not have an impact on the severity of the charges faced by the suspects. Virginia's hate crime legislation makes no special protections for sexual orientation or identity, only classifying as hate crimes those which are motivated by the victim's race, religious conviction, color or national origin.