Staff at a facility for abused women and children unknowingly kept a transgender woman under surveillance for weeks before she brutally stabbed a guard to death that her “internal organs were exposed,” police said.
Michelle Silva Perez was offered a spot at Shepherd’s Gate in Greenville, South Carolina, less than four miles from a men’s shelter also run by Miracle Hill Ministries.
The 36-year-old had been kicked out of the facility the night before for “failing to follow facility guidelines,” but returned on July 18 with a sword, nearly disemboweling a staff member named Kirby.
“We learned last night that this attacker, who had been living in Shepherd’s Gate for several weeks, was in fact a male,” Ryan T. Duerk, CEO of Miracle Hill Ministries, said in a statement that evening.
“I can assure you that we did not know or suspect this and that Shepherd’s Gate followed all procedures for the seizure correctly.”
Michelle Silva Perez was offered a spot at Shepherd’s Gate in Greenville, South Carolina, less than four miles from a men’s shelter also run by Miracle Hill Ministries
The 36-year-old had been expelled the night before for “not following the institution’s guidelines,” but returned on July 18 with a sword in his hand.
At 11 a.m., police were called after witnesses saw Perez push the woman to the ground and then stab her in the torso.
The victim was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery and is still in stable condition.
Witnesses reported seeing Perez push the woman to the ground before stabbing her in the torso
Perez was arrested at the scene and has been charged with attempted murder and possession of a weapon during a violent crime.
She was denied bail at a hearing last week and is currently being held in the Greenville County Jail, where she is being held as a man.
Lt. Ryan Flood of the Greenville County Sheriff’s Department said she is “in isolation as she continues to transition into a woman.”
The case is reminiscent of that of Harvey Marcelin, 84, who identified as a transgender lesbian when she killed Susan Leyden, 68, in the women’s wing of a New York City homeless shelter in 2022.
He had already been convicted of two previous murders when he was admitted to the Sage Center at Stonewall House in Brooklyn, where he was filmed stuffing Leyden’s decapitated torso into a garbage bag and tossing it into a shopping cart.
Separate surveillance footage from the store shows Marcelin sitting in his electric wheelchair on a severed human leg.
Last week it was announced that a federal judge has denied a request from a transgender killer who had requested a transfer to a women’s prison because she suffered from “chronic diarrhea” and stress.
Michelle Renee Lamb, 83, is serving a life sentence for kidnapping two women, strangling one of them and leaving her naked body in a field in 1969.
She is currently in the Topeka Correctional Facility in Kansas. In January 2023, she was transferred from a male prison, where she underwent gender confirmation surgery.
“I also suffered from diarrhea frequently. That was never a problem until I was put in this hateful environment,” Lamb, who previously identified himself as Thomas, said in the handwritten lawsuit.
Harvey Marcelin, left, had already killed two women when he was admitted to the women’s wing of a New York homeless shelter, where he killed Susan Leyden in 2022
U.S. District Judge John Lungstrum dismissed the case because Lamb failed to prove discrimination, The Topeka Capital-Journal reported.
“Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate that her housing exposes her to atypical and significant hardships compared to normal prison conditions,” Lungstrum wrote.
Duerk said staff at the Shepherd’s Gate center in Greenville had no reason to believe Perez was transitioning before they took her in. She said she would have been treated “differently” if they had known.
“All documentation was provided to ensure this individual was an appropriate candidate to reside in our women’s facility,” he wrote.
“This is a terribly unfortunate series of events that we will learn from and adapt to.”