Montgomery County Police informed that two men attacked two transgender women outside a 7-Eleven in Maryland early on Monday morning .

About 2:40 AM the Hispanic victims, of 36 and 44 years, were about to enter the store on Amherst Avenue in Wheaton while the men allegedly directed hateful, sexual-orientation-based words at them in Spanish.

When the 36 years old victim began to record the incident on her cellphone, one of the men threw a cup of noodles he was holding, on the victims. The men tried to grab the cellphone and punched and kicked the victims.

Police informed, that the victim who had recorded the incident was pushed into the glass window hard enough that caused a large crack.

The men took the cellphone and ran, but officers located them matching the description of the suspects. They were identified as the suspects, taken into custody and charged. The victims weregot minor injuries and were treated at a police station.

Carlos Hernandez-Sanez, 18 years old, was charged with robbery, second-degree assault, malicious destruction of property valued over $1,000, and harassment of a person based on race, religion or sexual orientation, a hate crime carrying a maximum penalty of three years and/or $5,000. He had been held on $65,000 bond.

Edras Vasquez, 20 years old, was charged with robbery, two counts of second-degree assault, malicious destruction of property valued over $1,000, and two counts of harassment of a person based on race, religion or sexual orientation. He had been held on $125,000 bond.

By Prakriti Neogi