Brooklyn Trans Hate Crime Victim Going Home with Brain Injuries

Kimy Hartman has an uphill climb ahead after suffering brain damage from a transphobic beating last month, and friends have set up a fundraiser to defray ongoing medical costs.

Kimball "Kimy" Hartman, the survivor of a vicious transphobic assault last month that left her with a traumatic brain injury, was finally able to leave the hospital today, New Alternatives for LGBT Homeless Youth announced in a statement.

Hartman's identity had been kept confidential until now. A 28-year-old transgender woman of color, she has been at the Bellevue Hospital Traumatic Brain Injury Rehabilitation unit since October 12, when four unidentified men punched, kicked, and hit her in the head with a piece of plexiglass near her home in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood. Hartman's assailants allegedly yelled antigay slurs at her and a gay male companion before attacking. Her friend escaped with only minor injuries.

Still suffering from brain damage, Hartman will require constant supervision at home, as well as 10 medications per day, intensive outpatient brain rehab, and additional neurosurgery to replace a missing portion of her skull, according to New Alternatives' statement. An online fundraiser has been set up to help Hartman with these expenses, as well as those related to her car, which was towed while she was incapacitated.

Two of Hartman's four attackers were caught on surveillance tape near the crime scene, but police have as yet been unable to identify them. The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is still investigating the attack.

Hartman's assault comes amid a rash of anti-LGBT violence in Brooklyn, including a September attack where three young men allegedly fired shots at a gender-nonconfirming person in Bushwick (the unidentified victim was treated for minor injuries and released), while a gay man was attacked with a hammer in the lobby of his Crown Heights apartment building by an unidentified assailant yelling antigay slurs on the same weekend Hartman was attacked.

Anyone with information relevant to the case should call 1-800-577-TIPS (8477), text tips to 274637 (CRIMES) then enter TIPS 577, or report them at NYPDCrimeStoppers.com.