Four people have been arrested and two charged in connection with the brutal assault of a Washington state transgender woman last week. The victim, 39-year-old Nikki Armstrong, says she expects similar attacks to continue under the current administration.

As ABC News reports, Armstrong told police she first encountered her attackers at a transit center in Renton, a suburb of Seattle, on the night of Monday, September 15. The four suspects were reportedly harassing other people waiting for buses, but turned their attention to Armstrong after she told them to stop.

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According to Seattle’s Fox 13, Armstrong encountered the four young men later the same evening nearby. Armstrong told police she heard someone yell an anti-LGBTQ+ slur at her before the suspects “began charging toward her,” according to charging documents, per ABC News.

Armstrong said she ran away, but tripped. She then heard someone yell an anti-trans slur at her, and the assault began as she was trying to get up.

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“I made it about a block before I tripped, and then they were on me, and it was fists and feet,” Armstrong told Fox 13. “They were choking me while one of them was stomping on my face at one point.”

Armstrong told police she believed the suspects were going to end her life, according to charging documents. Video of the attack filmed by a witness reportedly shows the suspects punching and kicking Armstrong in the upper torso and head before walking away as Armstrong remained on the ground, according to ABC News.

Charging documents indicate that Armstrong lost consciousness during the assault and was later hospitalized for a broken nose, broken occipital bone, broken orbital bone, and other serious injuries.

Last week, police arrested four suspects, including three teens between the ages of 15 and 17. Two brothers, ages 15 and 17, were arrested near the scene of the attack and charged with second-degree assault and a hate crime in juvenile court before being released both on electronic home detention, according to ABC News. Both pleaded not guilty.

Another 16-year-old boy was arrested Thursday on similar charges and has also been released on electronic home detention.

The fourth suspect, identified as 25-year-old Ramodre Edwards, turned himself in the same day after a family member recognized him in images released by authorities. Edwards is reportedly being held in the King County jail on suspicion of assault and hate crimes.

According to Fox 13, Armstrong now requires multiple reconstructive surgeries. As of Monday, September 22, a GoFundMe campaign has raised $29,885 of its $30,000 goal to cover her medical expenses and rent during her recovery.

In an interview with U.K. LGBTQ+ outlet PinkNews following the arrests, Armstrong said the donations have relieved the anxiety she felt about paying for her recovery. At the same time, she said, she no longer feels safe in the U.S.

“I want to be clear about this: it’s not because I’m worried about being randomly attacked by teenagers. It is because of the presidential administration that we have and their policies that I feel less safe now as a trans person than I ever have,” she said.

Armstrong previously told Fox 13 that she does not believe incarceration is right for the teens who attacked her.

“I don’t think jail is the place to fix troubled kids. And so I’m not gonna be [a] hypocrite and say that I think that they should be in there, but [we] gotta figure out something that does work for everybody, especially the kids. You know, because bad kids become bad adults,” she told the station.

She blamed anti-trans violence on the administration’s anti-trans rhetoric, which has increased exponentially in the week since anti-LGBTQ+ Christian Nationalist activist Charlie Kirk was shot by a suspect who was reportedly in a relationship with a trans person.

The president “has all but greenlit this type of violence and sadly I expect we will see more,” Armstrong told the outlet.

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