Two transgender women say they were attacked by a group of men who made derogatory comments towards them at the Hennepin Avenue and Fifth Street light rail station earlier this month.

Police responded to the women’s reported assault Nov. 10 around 8 p.m. at the Hennepin County Medical Center, where the two were treated for injuries consistent with a physical altercation, according to a brief from the Minneapolis Police Department.

The Minneapolis Police Department is continuing to investigate the incident. No charges have been filed nor arrests made. Preliminary information indicates a “physical altercation took place" after the women “confronted” the group, the department’s brief reads.

“The Hennepin County Attorney’s Office is aware of the incident and remains in contact with the Minneapolis Police Department as it continues its ongoing investigation,” Hennepin County Attorney Mary Moriarty’s chief of staff Shawn Daye said in a statement to Downtown Voices. “The MPD will make the ultimate determination on whether any conduct is appropriate for presentation to the HCAO for charging consideration at the conclusion of its inquiry.”

A week later, a rally was held in solidarity with the women, Jess and Dahlia, who recently moved to Minnesota from Iowa due to its status as a “Trans Refuge” state.

Activists, officials, and other supporters, including District 66A Rep. Leigh Finke, gathered Nov. 17 at the intersection where the incident happened.

A rally organizer told The Independent that a man yelled transphobic slurs at the women, and when Jess asked him to stop, the man “sucker punched” her.  The organizer said Dahlia then struck the man with her cane, prompting several other men to run over and “mercilessly beat” the two women, as onlookers cheered instead of helped.

Dahlia's nose was broken and Jess suffered “multiple contusions” on her ribs, according to the women. The police brief doesn't list specific injuries.

Supporters described the incident as a hate crime and criticized police for their handling of the reported assault. They say it's the third documented attack on a transgender woman on the light rail system in the past two years. 

Charges were filed against two men in an early 2023 attack on a transgender woman at the Lake Street light rail station, but the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office said at the time that it did not seek hate crime sentencing enhancements because there was no evidence anti-trans bias motivated the men, per MPR News.

In mid-September, two teenagers were assaulted in separate incidents just days apart at Hennepin and Fifth, where Jess and Dahlia were assaulted.

De’Miaya Broome, 16, was killed and five other people were injured Sept. 14 when a Latalia Margalli intentionally drove her SUV into a group of people who were fighting in the street, according to charges filed by the Hennepin County Attorney’s Office.

An unidentified 14-year-old boy was shot and injured Sept. 16 in a surface parking lot across from the light rail station. An 18-year-old male suspect was arrested almost immediately by police in the alley behind the First Precinct station.