Daniela Calderon was shot six times and amazingly survived. She's now out of the hospital, but the man who police say confessed to shooting her is also out of jail on bond, but no one can find him. That concerns Calderon and the transgender community.
"This morning when we informed her of the news, she was very angry, very distraught, and it affected her a lot emotionally," transgender community activist and friend of Calderon said at a Friday afternoon news conference. "She deserves justice and wants justice to be served in this case."
In September, Calderon was walking on Dennis road when she says a truck pulled up and the driver started yelling derogatory slurs about gay and transgender people. The driver shot her several times before driving off.
Police later arrested 29-year-old Domingo Ramirez-Cayente, a Mexican national, and charged him with aggravated assault. He was later released on $25,000 bail. Now authorities don't know where he is.
"He should be behind bars," Monroe said. He should not be out on a $25,000 bond. And because of the mistake the judge did now he's out and he can hurt anyone else."
I've learned it's at the discretion of the magistrate to set bail. Judge Hal Turley set Ramirez-Cayente's bail. We tried reaching him, but he was unavailable.
The District Attorney's office said in a statement regarding the low bond, "The magistrate set the bond at $25,000 with no ELM (electronic leg monitor). As soon as the DAs Office was made of aware of the low bond, we moved to amend the conditions of bond to include a monitoring device, unfortunately, the defendant had already fled."
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That doesn't help a community living in fear.
"Our community is in fear," Monroe said. "Not only Daniela now, it is a whole community who is terrified knowing that this suspect is released. We don't have any knowledge of his whereabouts and that's something we need to know and he needs to be behind bars."
ICE confirmed Ramirez-Cayente illegally entered the U.S. as was removed to Mexico back in 2010. Him being here again is a felony offense.
ICE urges anyone with information regarding Ramirez-Cavente's location in the United States to contact their local ICE office.
