A D.C. Superior Court Judge sentenced a 20-year-old man accused of assaulting, robbing and pushing a man, who he believed is gay, onto the Navy Yard Metro station tracks to one year in jail reports the Washington Blade.
The incident occurred on March 20 after Raheem S. Sills and two other men confronted the victim at Navy Yard’s platform with Sills slapping the back of the victim’s head after the victim tried walking away from Sills initial confrontation. Metro surveillance captured the assault, showing Sills taking the victim’s cell phone before shoving the victim onto the platform’s train tracks; fortunately the victim climbed back onto the station platform before on oncoming train arrived, but Sills continued the assault as the victim attempted to flee the station.
During Sills sentencing hearing Assistant U.S. Attorney Dineen Baker revealed that Sills disclosed at the time of his arrest that he attacked the victim because he “looked gay,” and that he doesn’t like gay people or men who “act like women.” D.C. Judge Yvonne Williams sentenced Sills to 14 months in prison with two years supervised probation upon release from jail.
In June a similar crime at a train station in New York City occurred when a man pushed a transgender woman onto the train tracks at the 6 train southbound platform.
