A transgender woman said she was the victim of a hate crime and her city's police department "failed her miserably," but police said they don't have enough evidence to prove what happened was a hate crime.
In a video of the incident, you can hear, "You got the stick, right? Let's call the motherf-----g police!"
Queen Tulsa, who not long before that moment arrived at Woodspring Suites in Tulsa, Oklahoma, to visit a friend, said the woman at the front desk was immediately hostile.
Why are you yelling? Why are you talking to me like this? And that’s when she said, 'Get the f--- out, I’m 'bout to beat your a-- in the parking lot,'" Queen Tulsa said.
When she saw the woman holding a wooden pole, she became frightened.
"I got scared, I’m not going to lie. I peeked out the door, she was, in fact, standing there; she was blocking me from my car," she said. "No, I'm not going to leave, I've called the police, and I'm waiting for them to come," Queen Tulsa said.
As tensions built, another employee allegedly got physical.
"Get your hands off of me! Get the f--- outside, man," you can hear people shout in the video.
"Do you consider this a hate crime?" KTUL asked Queen Tulsa. "It is definitely a hate crime," she said.
"We don’t see the evidence that this assault and this treatment was because of her sexual orientation or where she is as far as being transgender," said Captain Richard Meulenberg of the Tulsa Police Department (TPD).
For one thing, says TPD, when officers arrived, at no time did she say she felt it was a hate crime.
"At that time, not really, she was just very upset. She felt like they didn’t have rights to put hands on her, they didn’t have rights to do this, that and the other," said Meulenberg.
And that video of the alleged assault?
"The video wasn’t on a tripod somewhere else, so it wasn’t super clear in that video how this assault took place. So, he looked at it, and followed up with, 'Can you show me how this assault took place?' and she didn’t do that. She couldn’t do that. She became perturbed with him, and then would get away," said Meulenberg.
When the officer asked you to recreate exactly how you were assaulted, you were unable to?" asked KTUL.
"Oh, I don’t think that I was, I mean, I’m under stress, you know," said Queen Tulsa. She said she was struck in the neck and ribs and is confident of the motive.
"Do you think this happened because you’re transgender?" KTUL asked.
"Oh absolutely, the slurs, she called me a 'male.' They were calling me 'the bro,' get that 'man' out of here," she said. When it was all said and done, Queen Tulsa was cited for trespassing.
"In this situation, she’s breaking the law by staying in a private business after being asked to leave, and then when she says, 'No,' that business has the right to try to forcibly move someone from that business, and then turns around and says it's a hate crime. So, you have these nuances that really are best to be dealt with in court," said Meulenberg.
They failed me, they failed me miserably," said Queen Tulsa.
Feeling traumatized, she says she's sharing her story with the hope others don't experience something similar.
"When you think about trans lives, 57 trans people died last year. I don’t want to be on somebody’s milk carton. I don’t want to be on somebody’s 'Rest In Peace,'" she said.
Queen Tulsa said even though no one was arrested, she will be pressing charges against both individuals involved.
KTUL reached out to Woodspring Suites who told them, "No comment."