D.C. police are looking for a man who sexually assaulted a transgender woman at gunpoint in Northeast this week.

The assault happened behind the 5000 block of East Capitol Street Northeast around 4:45 a.m. Sunday.

The Metropolitan Police Department released details of the assault Monday night, saying that a man approached the woman as she was walking on the 200 block of 51st Street Northeast and struck her. He then forced her at gunpoint behind the East Capitol location and sexually assaulted her. The man also stole the woman’s purse before fleeing the area.

There is no preliminary indication that the woman was targeted because she is transgender, said MPD spokesman Officer Anthony Clay.

Last summer, a transgender woman was fatally shot and another fired upon with no provocation in a neighborhood about a mile from the site of the sexual assault.

Police described the suspect in the sexual assault as a black man in his early 20s, approximately 5-feet-7-inches tall with brown eyes and short braids. He was last seen wearing a black shirt, blue jeans and white sneakers.

Sign up for Daily Newsletters Manage Newsletters

Copyright © 2020 The Washington Times, LLC. Click here for reprint permission.