LOS ANGELES _ Los Angeles County prosecutors filed assault and robbery charges Tuesday against two of the men linked to a brutal attack on a group of transgender women in Hollywood last month that was caught on video and labeled a hate crime, authorities said.
Carlton Callway, 29, and Davion Williams, 22, will face charges including robbery and assault in connection with the Aug. 17 attack on Hollywood Boulevard, according to a news release issued by the Los Angeles County district attorney's office.
Eden the Doll, a transgender Instagram influencer with a massive online following, was on the Walk Of Fame with Jaslene Whiterose and Joslyn Flawless around 2 a.m. when a man began to threaten them, according to a widely viewed video of the incident that was published to social media. In the video, a man can be seen threatening Flawless with a crowbar as he robbed her before striking Whiterose over the head. Onlookers can be heard heckling and taunting the women throughout the ordeal.
Callway, a Compton resident, was charged with six criminal counts including robbery, assault and grand theft. Williams, also of Compton, was charged with assault and grand theft. Each man was charged under a hate crime enhancement after police alleged they made derogatory comments about the victims' gender identities during the alleged attack.
Callway was arrested in mid-August by police in Bakersfield, but was released from Los Angeles Police Department custody a few days later when the L.A. County district attorney's office referred the case back for further investigation. Callway's release from jail drew outrage among the LGBTQ community after Eden the Doll posted a recording of her conversation with an LAPD detective about the case to her 462,000 Instagram followers.
In the call, the detective was highly critical of prosecutors' handling of the case. The investigation is now being handled by the LAPD's elite Robbery-Homicide Division.
Callway and Williams were not in custody as of Tuesday afternoon, though officials were trying to arrange their surrender through their attorneys, according to LAPD Capt. Jonathan Tippet, who heads the Robbery-Homicide Division.
A court date has not been scheduled.
The district attorney's office rejected charges against a third suspect arrested in the case, according to a law enforcement official with knowledge of the situation.
Los Angeles police arrested Willie Walker, a 42-year-old homeless man, two days after the assault and accused him of trying to extort the women. The official, who spoke to the Los Angeles Times on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss an ongoing investigation, said Walker's actions failed to meet the threshold of a crime, as he did not try to use "force or fear" against the women, but only offered to recover their property in exchange for money.
