Man Freed From Jail Pending Further Investigation Into Attack On Eden The Doll, Friends In Hollywood
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — A man who was arrested in connection with an attack on three transgender women, including YouTube Personality Eden Estrada, in Hollywood was released from jail Tuesday after the Los Angeles County District Attorney's Office sent the case back to police for further investigation.
"Our office has asked for further investigation," Greg Risling, of the District Attorney's Office, said. "No charges have been filed at this time. Once the investigation is complete, the case will be reviewed for filing consideration."
Carlton Callway, 29, who had been behind bars since his arrest last Thursday by officers with the Los Angeles Police Department, was released from custody Tuesday at 2:20 p.m., according to jail records.
Another man, 42-year-old Willie Walker, was arrested last Wednesday in connection with the attack. He was released later that day, jail records show.
Police said a third man, Davion Williams, was still wanted for questioning in connection with the attack, which was being investigated as a possible hate crime.
Estrada, who goes by the name Eden the Doll on social media, was waiting for an Uber with Joslyn Flawless and Jaslene Whiterose at about 2:15 a.m. Aug. 17 when Callway allegedly approached them, according to police and the victims.
Callway allegedly offered to buy the women merchandise at a store in the 6500 block of Hollywood Boulevard, near Wilcox Avenue, but refused to pay and the women left, police said.
Police said Callway then allegedly approached them again with a metal bar and demanded one of the women's shoes and bracelet. The woman complied out of fear, and the suspect grabbed her hand and forced her to walk a short distance with him before she could escape.
Callway then allegedly assaulted another one of the women with a bottle, knocking her to the ground, according to police.
"He held a crow bar to my face and threatened to kill me unless I stripped my shoes off and gave him my jewelry and all my (possessions)," Flawless wrote on Instagram. "He said if I was trans, he would kill me. He then forced me to hold his hand while he looks for my friends to kill them for being trans."
The women said the man then took their phones, wallets and purses.
"It was absolutely the worst day of my life," Estrada previously said, adding that she believed it was a targeted attack because they are transgender.
Terra Russell-Slavin, the Los Angeles LGBT Center's director of policy and community building, called for accountability and transparency from the district attorney's office about the decision, "in light of the victims' accounts and bystander videos of the incident."
"At a time when transgender women of color, and especially Black transgender women, are being violently assaulted, and in many instances murdered, at vastly disproportionate rates, this decision cannot stand without further explanation," Russell-Slavin said in a written statement released Tuesday by the center. "We demand a full accounting for the process and we will continue to raise our voices of protest until our questions are answered."
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