SAN DIEGO -- Four suspects wanted in connection with the beating death of a transgender man in Vermont were arrested Thursday in Ocean Beach.
Police in Burlington, Vermont contacted San Diego police "to follow-up on information they obtained about the location of four homicide suspects wanted from their jurisdiction," according to San Diego Police Department Sgt. Michael Tansey.
The homicide occurred on May 22, Tansey said.
The suspects were located in the area of Dog Beach, near the 5100 block of Voltaire Street, and arrested without incident, Tansey said. They are identified as 21-year-old Jordan Paul, 25-year-old Allison Gee, 21-year-old Erik Averill and 22-year-old Myia Barber.
The victim was Amos Beede, 38. Beede was a transgender man who was born female and transitioned to male. Beede was known to help the homeless. He was found brutally beaten and unconscious in a homeless camp in Burlington Vermont on May 23. Beede died in the hospital six days later.
“It was devastating to see him in that condition. We've all been taking it very, very hard,” Beede's mother, Barbara Beede, told 10News by phone Thursday night.
Beede’s four accused killers are all in their early 20s and transient, police told Vermont media. They were on the run for 10 days.
Burlington police said Friday they do not believe the fatal beating was related to his being transgender. Police say a dispute between separate homeless encampments that involved smearing and pouring human waste on occupants' tents preceded the fatal beating of a transgender man.
Burlington police say someone from one encampment smeared feces on the tent of someone from the other camp about 100 feet away. Amos Beede was then assaulted after he poured urine on the tent of one of his assailants.
“He would mentor the homeless people down there," Beede said. "Buy food for them, try to get them shampoo, stuff like that, to help them out. So why these people did this? I don’t know, because he had the biggest heart there was.”
The four were interviewed by detectives and then booked into jail, pending extradition on the murder warrants issued in Vermont. They face charges of second degree murder.
“I always told him when he was little, there's no such thing as monsters. But there is. They proved that,” Beede said.
