Police: Transgender woman stabbed in NE DC

WASHINGTON - Police are investigating after a transgender woman was stabbed several times in northeast DC Tuesday.

According to DC police, the stabbing happened around 12:05 p.m. near the 1500 block of West Virginia Avenue NE, right across from the east end of the Gallaudet University campus. Investigators say the victim may have been stabbed inside a car, and was either pushed out or jumped out after being stabbed several times in the neck and chest. She was found in the street.

The victim was taken to Medstar in critical condition. Police are searching for the suspect, whom they describe as a large black man with a beard who was driving a gray Nissan or Honda.

FOX 5's Paul Wagner reported that a woman driving a white Volkswagen Beetle with blood on the driver's side door spent a considerable amount of time talking to police at the scene.

Several blocks of West Virginia Ave NE were closed in the area as a result of the investigation, but those roads have since reopened.

One neighbor who lives nearby told FOX 5 off camera that there is a serious prostitution problem in the area involving transgender women. She declined to go on camera. FOX 5 has no information from police to indicate that the victim in this case was working as a prostitute.

Two other transgender women have been murdered in the DC area in recent weeks. One of those murders happened on July 4 on Division Avenue in DC, and it remains unsolved. A transgender woman was also stabbed inside a Rockville hotel room, and arrests were made in that case.

Also recently in Montgomery County, a possible hate crime was being investigated after police say two men robbed and assaulted transgender women.