Transgender violence has surfaced again, this time in Greenville, South Carolina, when a man claiming to be a woman stabbed a staff member at Miracle Hill Women's Emergency Shelter for unknown reasons after he told him he was being kicked out of the shelter for violating rules. The suspect, Michelle Silva Pérez, 34, who is biologically male, reportedly attacked the female staff member with what was reported to be a sword.
The employee escaped the attack but her internal organs were exposed. She was taken to a local hospital for life-saving surgery. Perez was arrested and is currently being held in the men's section of the Greenville County Jail, where he has reportedly “transitioned” to a female.
The shelter was run by Miracle Hill Ministries, a Christian nonprofit organization that focuses on women and mothers with young children in the Greenville area.
“On the morning of July 18, 2024, a staff member was assaulted in the parking lot of the Greenville Women's Emergency Shelter by a former guest. The guest had disqualified herself from our program the previous night for not following facility guidelines,” Miracle Hill CEO Ryan Durek said in a statement.
Apparently, Perez's transgender status was not the reason for his eviction.
“It emerged last night that the attacker, who had been living at Shepherd's Gate for several weeks, was in fact a man. We did not know or suspect this. Shepherd's Gate went through all appropriate intake procedures,” the statement continued. “We submitted all paperwork to ensure this individual was a suitable candidate to stay in our women's facility. If we had known, we would have made an effort to accommodate this individual differently.”
Video of the incident allegedly shows Perez ambushing the victim, violently shoving him to the ground and attacking him with the sword, and the video also reportedly shows the victim's internal organs exposed.
“As believers, we are choosing to trust in the Lord now more than ever, and we know that Jesus will sustain us,” Durek said in a statement.
This brutal attack adds to a rapidly growing wave of violence perpetrated by transgender people. Earlier this month, a gender-confused teenage girl was arrested for shooting and killing her mother and her mother's boyfriend because they weren't enthusiastic about supporting her “gender transition.” In June, another transgender person, Mia Bailey, was charged with murdering her parents in Washington, Utah. And of course, last year, 28-year-old transgender person Audrey Hale killed six people at Covenant Christian School in Nashville, Tennessee.
Perhaps these heinous cases are part of a larger mental health issue that transgender advocates would rather not address. Maybe this isn't just a matter of being born in the “wrong body,” but a serious illness that LGBT-friendly media would rather ignore than cover. Media coverage of this case refers to Perez as a woman, but he is not a woman. He is a man, and a very troubled, and in this case, very violent, man.
