A Florida man was arrested on Sunday for assaulting a transgender woman and dragging her behind his van.
Eric Shaun Bridges, 34, was charged with attempted murder and is being held on a $500K bail, according to NBC News.
The unidentified woman was found lying in the middle of a Jacksonville, Florida, street on Friday evening. The victim “appeared to have been beaten severely, as well as dragged behind a vehicle by the lower extremities.”
The woman was transported to a local hospital with life-threatening injuries.
The Florida Times-Union reports there is video footage of the incident, but the Jacksonville Police Department refuses to release it.
"The video was so graphic we can't release it. It's horrendous," said Assistant Police Chief Brien Kee.
Investigators determined Bridges stole the van. He has been arrested for grand theft multiple times.
The victim was initially identified as a gay man, but residents of the neighborhood where the attack occurred confirmed she was trans.
Jacksonville's transgender community lives in fear due to a string of murders in 2018. Four of the 22 transgender people killed in 2018 died in the North Florida city. Last week, 21-year-old Sean Bernard Phoenix was arrested for the February 2018 shooting death of Celine Walker. The pair were romantically involved.
"The trans community don't feel safe with all these murders that have been happening here," Paige Mahogany Parks, leader of the Transgender Awareness Project, told NBC. She believes the rest of the LGBTQ community is relatively safe.
"It's so split here in Jacksonville," she added. "Other than the trans girls, everyone else is fine."