Victim of alleged transgender hate crime ‘distraught’ at news of second attack

A Seattle man already awaiting trial for one hate crime charge has now been charged in a second case stemming from a University District encounter last Thursday. Prosecutors described both incidents as unprovoked attacks on transgender women.

The victim of the first attack was Lexi Young, a transgender woman who has worked for the past year as a fare ambassador for Sound Transit. Charging documents allege that while Young was working on Sept. 14, 2024, the accused man, Andre Karlow, mocked her, calling her a slur for LGBTQ people when she approached him to seek proof of payment in the Chinatown-International District light rail station.

Karlow then boarded the train as Young tried to photograph him. Charging documents say Karlow “then stepped back off the train and punched Young in the face unprovoked.”

The King County prosecutor charged Karlow with a hate crime for targeting someone based on their gender expression and sexual orientation, because he allegedly used the slur and told the victim to "‘put some bass in your voice.'"

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Young said after the case was filed, she wasn’t aware that the Northwest Community Bail Fund had posted $3,000 cash bail to secure Karlow’s release. But even if she had known, Young said she assumed that someone awaiting trial on a hate crime assault charge, a felony with a maximum of five years in jail and a $10,000 fine, would have a strong incentive not to commit further offenses.

When Young learned this week that Karlow was also charged in the more recent attack, she said she was distraught that he may have hurt another person.

“It really gave me the sense that he just does not have any remorse,” Young said.

Young said she was also shaken to learn that the victim in the more recent attack sustained more severe injuries, including broken teeth, a bruised and swollen eye, and pain in the abdomen. That incident occurred in Seattle’s University District on Thursday March 27, 2025. While Karlow has been arrested and charged, police are investigating the possible involvement of three other men.

According to charging documents, the victim of the more recent attack said she passed a group of men on University Way Northeast who called her a “drag queen” and said to “take your makeup off.”

The victim turned, asked the men what they had said, and tried to photograph them. The men punched and kicked the victim. Ultimately the victim ran into a restaurant to ask for help. The men allegedly followed her but were gone by the time police arrived.

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Karlow was arrested and charged this week with second-degree assault and a hate crime. He remains jailed in lieu of $200,000 bail. His arraignment is scheduled for April 14.

“I am so, so sad that someone would resort to that level of violence, not just him but three others," Young said. "I got punched. I feel lucky.”

Young said, after hearing about this latest incident, she feels more afraid to do her job as a fare ambassador.

“I feel like I have a target on my back. I feel like my presentation is now something that could get me seriously hurt,” she said. “Because it’s happened.”

She placed some of the blame for the increased hostility toward trans people on President Trump, who has issued executive orders that reduce or eliminate trans rights and gender-affirming health care.

“The people who have a bias against us have become emboldened,” Young said.

The victim of the more recent attack alleged that during the incident the men repeated “Semper Fi,” the U.S. Marine Corps motto. The victim told the men she was a veteran.

Charging documents say “one of the suspects referenced Trump ending transgender acceptance in the military.”

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At Karlow's first court appearance, the prosecutor’s office said, “the defendant’s defense attorney said his client has no affiliation with the United States Marine Corps.”

Last Friday Seattle Police served a search warrant and arrested Karlow in the attic of his apartment building, according to charging documents. The King County Public Defenders Office, which represents Karlow, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

In terms of hate crimes in King County, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement that cases “involving anti-race/ethnicity are the cases most commonly referred by police and charged in King County. Cases involving anti-sexual orientation and anti-gender/gender expression are the second most common types of hate crime cases here. Both anti-race and anti-sexual orientation cases saw an increase during the pandemic. The referred numbers are lesser now, but we also know that hate crimes are underreported by survivors who may not know what they faced was actually a crime.”

In 2024, the King County Prosecutor’s Office charged four hate crimes cases involving sexual orientation, and three involving gender expression.