Authorities say that a trans woman who claimed she was taunted about her gender pulled out a knife and stabbed a man 13 times near a South Side gas station last week, causing his death.
The attack, which occurred in front of Kelly Day’s 7-year-old stepson in the 1400 block of East 87th Street Wednesday, was so violent that a tip of the knife blade broke off into the victim’s skull, authorities said. Day, 32, is now charged with first-degree murder for an escalation that she claimed happened in self-defense.
During a hearing Saturday at Central Bond Court, Judge John Hock approved a request to keep Day, of Chatham, in custody pending trial partly due to the brutality of the attack that left 50-year-old Larry Young dead.
The stabbing may have been heightened by a separate interaction earlier in the day when another group of people mocked Day for using a women’s bathroom at a McDonald’s, according to prosecutors. Day, who was born a biological male but identifies as a woman, told her wife that she didn’t want “bullies” to get away with making fun of her gender, Assistant State Attorney Sara Grgurovic told the court.
Later in the day, while walking west on 87th Street, Young approached Day, her wife and her stepson.
Young, who didn’t know Day, approached calmly, but began making comments about her gender, Grgurovic said. Day became “extremely angry” and began quarreling with Young, resisting her wife’s attempts to pull her away. Young then pushed Day before walking away toward a nearby gas station across the street, authorities said.
Day followed Young across the street and the pair fought for several moments, prosecutors said. Surveillance video from the gas station showed Day holding a knife, standing over the victim as he lay on the ground and stabbed him 13 times in the head, neck, and upper shoulders.
In a statement to investigators following her arrest, Day claimed self-defense, saying Young called her a gay slur, made a gun gesture and threatened to have someone beat her and her wife.
News of the stabbing had one leader of an advocacy group calling the incident emblematic of how quickly violence can affect the trans community.
Isa Noyola, transgender activist and Director of the Border Butterfly Project, pointed to the wider political climate and lack of violence prevention resources as an overarching reason the situation happened in the first place.
“I think the climate for trans people in society, globally, is really heightened and violent, and completely in a place where situations like this can go from zero to 100,” Noyola told the Tribune Saturday.
“It’s not this man just saying things in a vacuum,” Noyola said. “It’s not an isolated incident and it’s not an occurrence that happens out of thin air. It is the political climate, the social climate that we’re living in that is driven by hate groups and political leadership that continues to demonize trans people.”
Illinois, well-regarded as one of the most welcoming states for trans individuals, is home to around 82,150 transgender residents, according to 2024 data from the Illinois Department of Public Health.
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Through his term in office, Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson was instrumental in creating the Transfemicide Working Group in 2024. The group flagged “high rates of violence on the street, in shelters, and on public transit” for trans individuals as an issue.
While the city has new recommendations in place to strengthen resources for transgender individuals to report hate crimes and “to address the systemic barriers that continue to impact transgender residents across Chicago,” Noyola argues that there still aren’t enough violence prevention resources available in the city or in general.
“This is a situation that should’ve just been a casual evening, a casual moment with family that turned into a complete nightmare for everyone involved,” Noyola said. “I think it is unfortunate that these situations continue to happen based on this idea that trans people can be dehumanized at any moment.”
Following the stabbing, prosecutors said Day called 911, reporting that she was injured while protecting herself from a “pervert,” but left the scene. She tossed the knife, which was later found with a piece of the blade missing.
Day called 911 again, saying she cut herself while cooking and was arrested at Jackson Park Hospital after going to be treated for a cut on her finger, Grgurovic said.
An autopsy determined that Young died of multiple sharp force injuries in a homicide, with a pathologist recovering a tip of the metal knife from his skull, according to prosecutors and the Cook County medical examiner’s office.
Day is scheduled to return to court on Tuesday.