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Downtown Los Angeles skyline seen from MacArthur Park
Samuel Parros has been arrested in connection with the attacks on Sabrina de la Peña, and police are searching for two others.
One man has been arrested in connection with a string of attacks on a transgender business owner in Los Angeles, and police are searching for two more suspects.
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Samuel Parros, 30, was arrested May 27 and has been booked on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon, the Los Angeles Police Department announced Tuesday. He is accused of attacking Sabrina de la Peña, 61, at her convenience store in the city’s Westlake neighborhood, near MacArthur Park.
The assaults began April 8, when a young man who came into the store started flirting with her. When she rebuffed him, he pushed her to the floor and sexually assaulted her, discovering she is trans, and then threatened to kill her.
He came back to the store with two other men, and they attacked her multiple times in April. De la Peña was struck with a skateboard, doused with pepper spray, and had some kind of liquid thrown at her, and one of the men tried to stun her with a Taser.
She was attacked again last Saturday. Initial reports indicated the assailants were the same three men, but police said Tuesday that Parros was already in custody then. They believe the two other men are responsible for Saturday’s assault. It’s not clear from the police report if Parros is charged in connection with the first attack or one of the others.
De la Peña believes she was targeted for being trans. “My life has changed a lot. For almost 30 years, I felt safe,” she told the Los Angeles Times. “Now I am full of so many fears, so much panic. I don’t think I will ever be the same again.”
The police have released photos of the suspects taken from surveillance video, and they are asking the public for help in apprehending the remaining two. Anyone with information should call the LAPD’s Rampart Division Detectives at (213) 484-3495 or leave an anonymous tip at L.A. Regional Crime Stoppers Hotline, (800) 222-8477, or at www.lacrimestoppers.org, police said.
