Monday afternoon, 44-year-old transgender hairstylist Ijan Jarret was stabbed on the New York Subway in what is believed to be a hate crime. In an interview with the New York Post, Jarret said, “Two girls came on the train. The heavy-set girl was standing over me. I asked her, ‘Would you like to sit next to your friend?’ she said, ‘Oh no, no. I’m good.'”
The ‘heavy-set girl’ that Jarret refers to is 30-year-old Stephanie Pazmino, who Jarret says later went on to whisper to her cousin who was seated next to her “I don’t want to sit next to a black person.” Jarret also says that he made out the word “Negro” from Pazmino’s whispers to her cousin.
After Jarret said, “Okay, you don’t have to sit next to me” and exited the Subway at 125th Street, he believed that he was just being punched by an enraged Pazmino, until an unidentified Subway rider called out, “Yo, yo, she is stabbing you!”
The unidentified man fortunately positioned himself between Jarrett and his attacker, but by that time Jarret had already been struck with so many wounds that he would later have to receive 100 stitches as reported by the authorities. Jarret was stabbed under his left eye, on the back of his hand and left arm all while Pazmino was “screaming and hollering the whole time.”
Pazmino made a court appearance earlier this week on Tuesday in which her attorney, Elise Chandler, made Pazmino’s defense by claiming that Jarret “tried to take out her eyes with his nails and fingers” and that the situation happened during “Christmas time where lots of people lose their tempers.” However, Pazmino was charged with second-degree assault and criminal possession of a weapon with bail posted at $4,000 cash with a $7,500 bond.
