A woman in New York City has been left with brutal injuries after she says she was assaulted by a trans-identified male rapper. Speaking to Reduxx, Aspen Burrell says that police have failed to arrest her assailant, Quayana “Quay” Dash, and that she is now living in constant fear for her life due to the fact that Dash lives next door to her.
Burrell’s ordeal began three weeks ago, when she was a witness to an altercation between Dash and his female roommate. Hearing cries for help echo from the building next door, Burrell and a friend rushed out onto the sidewalk to see where the noise was coming from. Outside, they found another woman in distress. The woman explained that her roommate, Quayana Dash, had assaulted her and locked her out of her apartment.
Burrell and her friend waited with the woman until police arrived, ultimately arresting Dash. He was released soon after.
But on the evening of March 16, at approximately 7 p.m., Burrell was walking home with groceries and approaching her residence when she heard an eerie “whistling” sound.
“It sounded like someone was taunting me,” Burrell told Reduxx. When she turned around, she says she saw Dash staring at her maniacally. Feeling uncomfortable, Burrell asked if he was okay, at which point, she says, “something snapped” in him.
Burrell claims Dash called her a “bitch” and began threatening to assault her, accusing Burrell of having called the police on him during his altercation with his roommate – something which Burrell denied.
Burrell says the man then started screaming “I’ll beat the fuck out of you! You called the cops on me.” She refuted his claims, telling him she hadn’t called the police, but believed the woman he had attacked had done so.
Suddenly, Burrell claims Dash began hitting her, dragging her by the hair, and pulling her down to the ground.
“I just remember trying to fend for myself,” she says. “I didn’t even know what had happened.”
In addition to several abrasions and lacerations, Burrell was also injured when Dash bit her on her backside, leaving a deep, teeth-indented wound in her flesh. Burrell provided Reduxx with a copy of her medical records, showing she was treated for several serious injuries on her face, hand, thigh, and neck.
She was also administered vaccines against diphtheria, tetanus, and pertussis.
Having received multiple calls from residents in the neighborhood, police quickly arrived on the scene. However, law enforcement did not make an attempt to arrest Dash, and instead instructed Burrell to stay in her home in order to avoid him.
One officer handed her his business card and told her to call him should Dash attempt to intimidate or harass her, and promised he would come to her aid “immediately.”
The following day, at 5 p.m. on March 17, Burrell says she saw Dash in the park across the street from her window, “waving and yelling” at her and nodding his head “in a devious and sinister way.” Additionally, Burrell was told by neighbors that he had been standing outside her door the night before, shouting, “Come out, bitch!”
Frightened, Burrell called the police, but law enforcement did not arrive at her residence for another hour and a half, even though she made three calls within that period inquiring as to when the officers would come to her home.
“I also called my detective, and he hung up on me,” Burrell said. She then personally visited the police precinct and spoke with a supervisor. “They were very dismissive, very rude, and didn’t care to hear my story in whole, basically telling me there is nothing they can do,” she added. “Why is it that this is an open case, but this isn’t a priority for the detective to be asking me questions?”
Burrell added that she was “disheartened and disappointed” because the only suggestion she had been provided by police was to stay inside her home and not leave.
“I need to go to the store to get food, and I can’t do those things because I am fearful for my life, because someone basically wants to kill me,” she says.
On March 18, Burrell was told to return to the precinct in order to identify Dash from a lineup photo. She requested a police escort, and was told to wait for approval. As the day passed, Burrell attempted to call the officer handling her case, Detective Tyrone Woodson, but he did not answer. At 5 p.m., she sent an email asking for an update, and was sent the photo, enabling her to identify her attacker to law enforcement.
Reduxx has reviewed an email communication between Burrell and the detective handling her case where she was told that officers “can’t actively go after” the suspect, but rather that they expect her to make a report if he threatens her again.
“If you see this individual, you are to proceed just like you did before,” wrote the detective. “When you call 911 you let them know that you have an active assault case against the subject, and he is wanted. The officers will come to your location. Make sure you let them know you are in fear of what this individual would do to you because he knows where you live. They should be there in enough time to apprehend them.”
Burrell was frustrated, responding: “So you’re not going to get a warrant for their arrest? I’m trying to press charges. I am trapped in my house until I have to run into them again? This is sick.”
In response, the detective wrote that the case would be issued an “investigation card,” which is similar to a warrant.
“The only difference is that our warrants teams can’t actively go after them. This is not a Felony so they won’t be involved. But once they are arrested you will be given an Order Of Protection and you will be able to press charges on the individual,” wrote the detective.
“Who is responsible for arresting them? I am not going to be sitting at my window waiting for them to come outside with a weapon this time. You need to call me so I can directly speak with you,” Burrell said.
“I’m super confused as to how, who, when and where is supposed to be protecting me right now. Someone is trying to kill me and threatened my life. On top of that they are mentally ill and can climb up my fire escape. What peace of mind are you giving me?” she asked. “I want them arrested, sir, I shouldn’t have to do what you guys should be doing and that’s apprehend this person. How in reality am I supposed to identify them and then put myself in danger again to be hit and potentially killed?”
Burrell has launched a GoFundMe, explaining that she needs financial resources to hire an attorney to help her obtain a restraining order against Dash and navigate her interactions with NYPD, and so that she can leave the neighborhood as soon as she can.
“If this person does get arrested, they’re most likely to be returned back home within two days to two weeks. So I have to get out of my house now,” she said. “I need that money to go to new housing immediately on top of the medical fees and the attorney fees.”
Burrell claims that Dash has a history of assaulting women, but any criminal record he might have appears to have been obfuscated by his identity change.
The suspect in the case, known professionally as Quay Dash, has been involved in hip-hop and rap for a number of years, and briefly moved to the United Kingdom to release an EP through Perth Records in 2017 titled “Transphobic.”
The album was positively profiled by The Guardian, with Dash being presented as a struggling “black trans woman” who feared for his life while living in the United States.
“When I’m in America, I just feel like the transphobia is real; the homophobia is real; everything is just like real. It’s so anti … I really can’t with America,” Dash said during the interview.
In October of 2017, Dash released a single titled “Queen Of This Shit.” The song skyrocketed in popularity, later being featured on the soundtrack for HBO’s hit show, Euphoria.
Reduxx has reached out to the NYPD Press Desk and Detective Woodson for more information on what NYPD is doing to protect Burrell, but did not hear back in time for this publication. The article may be updated in the event a response is received.
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