A 17-year-old transgender girl is in critical condition after being stabbed 18 times at the Miami International Airport over the weekend.
The teen, whose identity has yet to be released, was eating a meal on the floor in the pre-security area of the airport Saturday evening when she was allegedly stabbed in the arms, neck, shoulders, face, and legs by Alexander Love, 29, Miami-Dade County pol ice told NBC News . Love then attempted to throw the girl over a railing.
“The victim was able to escape the attack and ran down the stairs to the third-floor level, which is where the officers found her,” police said .
The girl has not been able to provide other details about the incident because her injuries have left her unable to speak, according to ABC News. But police told the network on Monday that they are looking into the incident as a potential hate crime.
The Miami-Dade Police Department did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
Love was charged with attempted first-degree murder and attempted premeditated murder, according to the arrest report. He is being held without bond.
Police said Love attacked the girl “without provocation” and ambushed her with a butcher knife.
Shortly after the attack, Love was taken into custody by Customs and Border Protection. Miami-Dade police told NBC News that Love admitted that he had become acquaintances with the girl before the attack.
CBP did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.
In an arrest report cited by ABC News , Love claimed that he was “possibly drugged and someone inserted an unknown object in his rectum.”
“Although the defendant is not certain the victim is responsible for this, the defendant made a statement indicating he needed to hurt whoever hurt him and was prompted to purchase the knife at a Target store near Miami International Airport,” the report said, per ABC News. The report also noted that there was no indication of alcohol or drug use by Love.
County officials told the Miami Herald that both Love and the teen were living at the airport, though police have yet to confirm if the two knew each other.
Around 20 to 25 unhoused people use the airport for shelter each day, Greg Chin, the communications director for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department, told CBS News .
Ron Book, chairman of the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, which assists people experiencing homelessness, told HuffPost that the organization is working to secure long-term housing 29 LGBTQ+ youth out of the nearly 480 unhoused youth in their systems.
Book said often the LGBTQ+ young people the organization serves have been “rejected from their homes.” He emphasized that the Homeless Trust needs to “build trust” with the community and address its unique set of challenges than the broader population.
Book said organization also sent outreach workers to the airport to help relocate the two dozen people living there. He said they have already convinced two unhoused people to accept the organization’s services.
Though the motive in the stabbing is still unknown, transgender people are four times more likely than cisgender people to experience violent victimization.
The Human Rights Campaign has called the spate of violence against transgender people an “epidemic” and documented the murders of at least 33 trans and gender nonconforming people in 2023.
Last week, Jade Monique Thomas, a 49-year-old Black trans woman, was shot and killed near an Orlando mall. Last month, 14-year-old transgender teen Pauly Likens was murdered and her dismembered body was found in a reservoir on the border of Pennsylvania and Ohio.
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