Family Of Trans Woman Killed In Front Of Miami City Ballet Says The System Let Her Down
The family of a transgender Florida woman who was found beaten to death is speaking out after Miami Beach police arrested her alleged killer.
Gregory Fitzgerald Gibert, 53, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of Andrea Doria Dos Passos, 37, who was identified by police as the victim who wasfound outside the Miami City Ballet Tuesday morning, according to a press release.
According to an arrest affidavit obtained by HuffPost, a staff member of the Miami City Ballet located Dos Passos lying on her side near the main entrance of the building and attempted to wake her up, thinking she was asleep. Upon closer observation, the employee realized there was blood around her and called the police.
Responding officers “found trauma and blood” on Dos Passos’ face and head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.
Further inspection revealed Dos Passos sustained injuries to her face and the back of her head, and had “two wooden sticks” lodged in her nostrils. She also had a puncture wound in her chest.
Surveillance footage cited in the affidavit showed Dos Passos arriving around midnight and lying down. Footage then shows a man, alleged to be Gibert, approach Dos Passos “and begins to strike her with the metal pipe [on] the head and face several times.”
The man in the video is then seen walking away and throwing the metal pipe inside a trash can, which detectives later recovered.
When officers arrested Gibert, he was wearing the same “unique” basketball shoes and same red shorts seen in the surveillance footage. “Both the shoes and shorts had what appeared to be bloodstains on both of them,” the affidavit read.
Victor Van Gilst, Dos Passos’ stepfather, told ABC affiliate WPLG that she had been struggling with mental health for years, and he had last spoken to her two weeks before her death.
“I knew one day this could happen,” he said. “Andrea was trans. We thought at first it could be a hate crime.”
Multiple advocacy groups have spoken out about Dos Passos’ killing, including the Human Rights Campaign and the Flamingo Democrats, Miami Dade County’s LGBTQ Democratic Caucus.
“We are calling on the State’s Attorney to add a hate crimes charge to the current second-degree charge,” wrote the Flamingo Democrats.
Miami Beach Police Chief Wayne Jones stated in the press release that “there is no evidence to suggest that Andrea was targeted because of her sexuality or gender.”
“We are dedicated to working closely with the Miami Dade County State Attorney’s Office to ensure that this case is prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Wayne said.
Speaking at Gibert’s court appearance on Thursday, Miami Dade Judge Mindy Glazer said there was probable cause for a more serious charge, according to NBC affiliate WTVJ.
“I’ve had a chance to review the arrest affidavit, to me it looks like it should be a first-degree murder not a second-degree, based on the facts alleged in this arrest affidavit where he allegedly struck the victim with a metal pipe about the head and face, and then it looks like he defiled the body by doing other things to the victim after she was deceased,” Glazer said.
Van Gilsttold WTVJ he felt his stepdaughter was failed by the system.
“I think that the system let her down,” he said. “At this moment I also have the feeling that I let her down. Nobody deserves this. Nobody deserves this, to die like this.”
