Suspect identified in transgender stabbing

A man who was arrested on suspicion of stabbing a 24-year-old transgender woman as she exited a San Francisco Municipal Railway bus with a friend on Saturday evening in The City’s Civic Center neighborhood has been identified.

San Francisco police spokeswoman Sgt. Monica MacDonald said San Francisco resident Brodes Wayne Joynes, 54, was arrested in connection with the stabbing shortly after it was reported around 5:55 p.m. Saturday on Van Ness Avenue between Golden Gate Avenue and Turk Street.

The victims, two transgender women, boarded a 49-Van Ness Muni bus in the South of Market neighborhood and headed north on Van Ness Avenue. Police said the victims were sitting toward the back of the bus when Joynes approached them.

One of the transgender women, Rae Raucci, posted a statement on Facebook following the attack, saying she remembers that the man started saying derogatory things to them:

“We were both on the bus together when a man across the way accused us both of defrauding him by pretending to be female.”

Raucci wrote. Raucci wrote that the man harassed her and her friend Samantha, repeatedly calling the pair derogatory names. The pair then decided to get off the bus to get away from him. The suspect, however, also got off the bus brandishing a knife, Raucci wrote.

Raucci wrote that the man stabbed Samantha twice in the upper chest. Police said the victim was transported to San Francisco General Hospital with stab wounds. Samantha received 10 stitches at the hospital, according to Raucci.

Joynes was arrested at the scene following the attack and was booked into jail on an outstanding warrant, two counts of aggravated assault and two counts of criminal threats with a hate crime enhancement, according to MacDonald.

The sergeant said the attack is not currently being investigated as a hate crime because, so far in the investigation, there is no evidence to suggest that Joynes targeted the victim based on her sexual orientation or gender identity.

MacDonald said that just because someone is yelling slurs as they commit a crime doesn’t necessarily classify the incident as a hate crime.