by Mike Andrew - SGN Staff Writer

Kira Crowley just moved to Seattle from Phoenix. She was in town less than a week when she was assaulted on Capitol Hill.

'I was just walking down the street, carrying my bag,' she told SGN, 'when this man comes up and says, 'Faggot, faggot, there's a faggot, we should kill people like you.'

'I just smiled at him since I was still wearing the wig,' Crowley said, indicating her blond wig. 'Then he punched me.'

'There was no reason. We didn't interact. There was no contact beforehand,' she adds. 'He might have been drunk or he might have been crazy. He was mumbling things.'

Crowley says she did not seek medical attention, but her left cheek is sore and puffy where she was hit, 'and my left ear doesn't hear very well.'

The incident happened on May 3 at Bellevue Ave. and Pine St., at about 1:30 p.m.

Crowley says she then flagged down a passing police car. Her impression of Seattle police was 'very favorable,' she says.

'I was so impressed,' she told SGN. 'They actually understood all the terms and stuff. I was like 'Wow!'

According to the police report, the suspect then attempted to flee on a Metro bus, but was caught by police, questioned at the scene, and subsequently released.

Police say the suspect 'appeared intoxicated and disoriented.' He told the officer he first kissed Crowley, then punched her.

Police Department spokesperson Renee Witt confirmed that the assault was being handled as a bias crime.

Witt told SGN that Seattle police receive extensive training on how to deal with the city's diverse communities.

'They get basic training at the Washington State Criminal Justice Center, then they get four to six weeks of advanced training once they come to us,' Witt said.

'We go into all the malicious harassment definitions, we have people from the respective communities in, and our liaison, Kim Bogucki, meets with them.'

A graduate of Arizona State University, where she studied international business and marketing, Crowley was born and raised in Phoenix.

She had been staying at This Is HOW - a transitional home for Trans people - when she decided to relocate.

'People told me that Seattle would be the best fit for me,' she explained.

In spite of the assault, she is happy she made the move.

'Seattle is a lot cooler,' she says.

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