By Breitbart News Network | Created at 2026-10-13 13:41:32 | Updated at 2026-10-16 16:09:50
3 days ago
A man who identifies as a transgender woman has been charged with first-degree murder after allegedly stabbing a stranger 13 times on Chicago’s South Side, with the knife blade reportedly breaking off in the victim’s skull.
Kelly Day, 32, was with his wife and seven-year-old stepson near a gas station last Wednesday when he allegedly attacked 50-year-old Larry Young, who did not know him. During a bond hearing Saturday, a Cook County judge ordered Day held in custody pending trial, citing in part the brutality of the attack.
Prosecutors laid out a sequence that began hours earlier. Assistant State Attorney Sara Grgurovic told the court that a separate group had mocked Day for using a women’s bathroom at a McDonald’s that day, and Day told his wife he did not want “bullies” to get away with making fun of his claimed gender.
Young crossed paths with the family later on the street. He approached calmly but made comments about Day’s claimed gender, Grgurovic said. Day became “extremely angry” and started arguing, resisting his wife’s attempts to pull him away. Young pushed Day and walked off toward the gas station across the street.
Day allegedly followed him. Surveillance video from the gas station showed him standing over Young as Young lay on the ground, stabbing him 13 times in the head, neck, and upper shoulders, prosecutors said.
He then called 911, reporting that he had been injured protecting himself from a “pervert,” before allegedly tossing the knife and leaving the scene. The blade was later found with a piece missing. Day called 911 a second time, this time saying he had cut himself while cooking, and was arrested at Jackson Park Hospital after going in for treatment on his finger.
After his arrest, Day claimed self-defense, telling investigators Young had called him a gay slur, made a gun gesture, and threatened to have someone beat him and his wife. An autopsy ruled Young’s death a homicide caused by multiple sharp force injuries, with a pathologist recovering the knife tip from Young’s skull.
Isa Noyola, a transgender activist and director of the Border Butterfly Project, blamed the political climate for the killing.
“It’s not an isolated incident and it’s not an occurrence that happens out of thin air,” Noyola told the Tribune. “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.”
Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson created a Transfemicide Working Group in 2024 to address violence against transgender residents. In April, prosecutors charged a Chicago man with killing his transgender girlfriend with a hammer.
The case spread quickly on X, where users responding to the New York Post’s coverage pointed to Day’s gender identity.
