A screengrab from the victim’s video/ Post Bar

DEARBORN — Police are investigating an assault on a transgender woman at a bar in West Dearborn in the early hours of Wednesday morning. They have not ruled out the possibility of a hate crime. 

Around 1:50 a.m., an argument started after a Post Bar patron made derogatory comments about the victim, Courtney Purvis. 

“Management escorted all parties out of the bar and once outside the victim states she was stabbed in the back and struck in the face with a bottle,” police said in a statement. “The victim suffered non-life threatening injuries, was treated at a local hospital and released.”

Purvis posted a video explaining the incident after the attack. Her face was bruised and bloodied. Cuts appeared on her lower lip and eyebrow. 

“Look at my face; because I’m transgender,” she says in the video, which had been viewed more than 130,000 times by Thursday morning. “They treated me like I did something wrong. I’ve been attacked. Trans lives matter too. I don’t understand why they attacked me like this.”

Police are still working to identify the suspects. No arrests have been made. 

Lt. Gary Mann said the matter is still in the preliminary stage of the investigation. Asked if the assault was a hate crime, the lieutenant said he would not rule out that possibility.

“But we’re not going to rule it as a hate crime just yet,” Mann told The Arab American News. 

Dearborn Police Chief urged anyone with information about the attack to contact the authorities. 

“It’s important that we gather all the facts to determine what happened and to ensure that the perpetrator is held responsible,” the chief said in a press release. 

If you know anything about the incident, contact the Dearborn Police Department at 313-943-2241 or Crime Stoppers at 1-800-773-2587.