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Suspects arrested in killing of transgender man

Posted at 12:15 AM, Jun 03, 2016
and last updated 2016-06-03 05:35:08-04

Four suspects wanted in connection with a homicide in Vermont were arrested Thursday in San Diego's Ocean Beach.

Police in Burlington, Vermont contacted San Diego police "to follow-up on information they obtained about the location of four homicide suspects wanted from their jurisdiction," according to San Diego Police Department Sgt. Michael Tansey.

The homicide occurred on May 22, Tansey said.

The suspects were located in the area of Dog Beach and arrested without incident, Tansey said.

The victim was Amos Beede, 38. Beede was a transgender man who was born female and transitioned to male.

Beede was known to help the homeless. He was found brutally beaten and unconscious in a homeless camp in Burlington Vermont on May 23. Beede died in the hospital six days later.

“It was devastating to see him in that condition. We've all been taking it very, very hard,” Barbara Beede told 10News by phone Thursday night.

Beede’s four accused killers are all in their early 20s and transient, police told Vermont media.

They were on the run for 10 days.

They are identified as Jordan Paul, Allison Gee, Erik Averill and Myia Barber.

Burlington police told media in Vermont they are investigating if Beede was attacked because he was transgender.

“He would mentor the homeless people down there. Buy food for them, try to get them shampoo, stuff like that, to help them out. So why these people did this? I don’t know, because he had the biggest heart there was,” Barbara Beede said.

“I always told him when he was little, there's no such thing as monsters. But there is. They proved that,” Barbara Beede said.

The four were interviewed by detectives and then booked into jail, pending extradition on the murder warrants issued in Vermont.

They face charges of second degree murder.