“So I’m in shock and I’m triggered,” she said before giving her account.
Cox went on to explain in the video that she was in “incognegro” mode during the “socially-distanced” walk and wore a hoodie with a face mask. She said her time as a New Yorker made her hesitant to speak to strangers, but the man that attacked her friend seemed intent on interacting with them.
"The friend that I’m with looks at his watch and tells him the time, and then the guy who asked for the time says to my friend: ‘Guy or girl?' My friend says, ‘F***k off.’ I’m walking, and I’m hearing all of this is happening in a split second. Then all of a sudden, the guy was attacking my friend," Cox said.
“I look back and I’m like, ‘What is happening?’ The guy is like hitting my friend,” she said. “I pull out my phone and I call to dial 911, and all of a sudden it’s over and the guy is gone.”
Following the encounter, Cox said she and her friend surmised that the assailant was likely trying to figure out “whether I’m trans or not.”
"The guy really wanted me to answer so that he could spook whether I'm trans or not," Cox said. "I don't know why, I don't know why it matters. At the end of the day, it's like who cares? I'm in a hoodie and yoga pants, I'm completely covered up, I've got my mask on, who cares if I'm trans? How does this affect your life?"
