Family Of Trans Woman Killed In Front Of Miami City Ballet Says The System Let Her Down

The family of a transgender Florida woman who was found beaten to death is speaking out after Miami Beach police arrested her alleged killer.

Gregory Fitzgerald Gibert, 53, was arrested and charged with second-degree murder in connection to the death of Andrea Doria Dos Passos, 37, who was identified by police as the victim who wasfound outside the Miami City Ballet Tuesday morning, according to a press release.

According to an arrest affidavit obtained by HuffPost, a staff member of the Miami City Ballet located Dos Passos lying on her side near the main entrance of the building and attempted to wake her up, thinking she was asleep. Upon closer observation, the employee realized there was blood around her and called the police.

Responding officers “found trauma and blood” on Dos Passos’ face and head. She was pronounced dead at the scene.

Further inspection revealed Dos Passos sustained injuries to her face and the back of her head, and had “two wooden sticks” lodged in her nostrils. She also had a puncture wound in her chest.

Surveillance footage cited in the affidavit showed Dos Passos arriving around midnight and lying down. Footage then shows a man, alleged to be Gibert, approach Dos Passos “and begins to strike her with the metal pipe [on] the head and face several times.”

The man in the video is then seen walking away and throwing the metal pipe inside a trash can, which detectives later recovered.

When officers arrested Gibert, he was wearing the same “unique” basketball shoes and same red shorts seen in the surveillance footage. “Both the shoes and shorts had what appeared to be bloodstains on both of them,” the affidavit read.

Victor Van Gilst, Dos Passos’ stepfather,told ABC affiliate WPLG that she had been