Photo by voteprime.

A Maryland man was sentenced to 28 months in prison today for a assaulting a transgender woman in Northeast D.C.

According to a release from the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia, Michael Phillips of Fairmount Heights pleaded guilty in March to assault with a dangerous weapon with a hate crime enhancement. In January of this year, according to the government, the 36-year-old man was inside a convenience store in the 900 block of Eastern Avenue NE when the victim entered.

Upon seeing the victim and her friends walk into the store, Phillips stated words to the effect of, “Let me see who’s the real bitch here.” He then pointed at the victim and made a derogatory remark about her sexuality. When the victim told Phillips to leave her alone, Phillips stated words to the effect of, “Well you wasn’t born no female.”

Words were exchanged inside the store, and Phillips approached the victim, pulled a handgun from his pocket and struck her in the face with the weapon multiple times. At his plea hearing, Phillips admitted assaulting the victim with the handgun because of his prejudice based on her perceived sexual orientation and gender identity.

After serving his sentence, Phillips will be placed on three years of supervised release.

In 2013, there were 12 bias-related crimes perpetrated in D.C. over gender identity/expression and 31 over sexual orientation. This year there have been four and 14, respectively, as of May 31.