Man accused of beating trans woman to death as she slept near Miami City Ballet is arrested

A man caught on video surveillance beating a transgender woman to death — smacking her on her head and face with a pipe as she slept Tuesday near the Miami City Ballet building in Miami Beach — has been arrested, police said.

Gregory Fitzgerald Gibert, 53, who was out on probation, is charged with the second-degree murder of 37-year-old Andrea Doria Dos Passos, whom police said was homeless. Gibert was booked into a Miami-Dade County jail where he remained as of Wednesday afternoon.

Around 7 a.m. Tuesday, an employee of Miami City Ballet, 2200 Liberty Ave., spotted Dos Passos on the ground near the building’s entrance and tried to wake her, according to Gibert’s arrest report. When the employee saw blood around her, he called 911.

Paramedics found her body partially covered by a sweater, with lacerations on her face and back of her head and two wooden sticks lodged into her nostrils.

“One stick exited over the right eye and the other appeared lodged into the nose cavity,” police said on Gibert’s arrest report. “A puncture wound was also located in the victim’s chest.”

Surveillance footage from Miami City Ballet shows the woman lying down by the building’s entrance around midnight, police said in the report.

Hours later, a man is seen looking around and at Dos Passos, walking away and picking up a pipe from the ground before sitting on a bench near the woman, police said. That’s when the man — later identified as Gibert — walked toward the woman and “begins to strike her with the metal pipe about the head and face several times.”

After beating her, Gibert is seen walking away and placing the pipe in a nearby trashcan, where cops found it later, police said.

READ MORE: Miami Beach police investigating after woman beaten to death near Miami City Ballet: sources

After matching Gibert’s physical description to one of his previous mugshots, police found him at 1524 NW First Ave. hours later before taking him to the police station, where he declined to speak with officers. Police say Gibert was wearing some of the same bloodstained clothes he had on during the attack.

Gibert is behind bars at Turner Guilford Knight Correctional Center, jail records show.

Was it a hate crime?

Miami Beach Police Chief Wayne Jones said in a statement Wednesday there was no evidence the attack was targeted. A police spokesman told the Miami Herald that Dos Passos’ killing is not being investigated as a hate crime.

“At this time, there is no evidence to suggest that Andrea was targeted because of her sexuality or gender,” Jones said. “However, we understand the concerns within the LGBTQIA+ community, and I want to emphasize that MBPD is committed to ensuring the safety and well-being of all our community members.”

But Flamingo Democrats, the Miami-Dade chapter of the Florida LGBTQ+ Democratic Caucus, called for the state attorney’s office to add a hate crime enhancement to Gibert’s second-degree murder charge.

“The safety of all residents of Miami Beach and Miami-Dade County should be of the utmost importance, especially those in marginalized communities such as our transgender community,” the organization said in a statement.

Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office’s Hate Crimes Unit is reviewing the case.

“The SAO Hate Crimes Unit reviews every criminal offense that has the potential of being motivated by hate, to see if Florida’s hate crime enhancement is applicable to the specific situation,” the agency said.

READ MORE: Was the brutal killing of a trans woman in Miami Beach a hate crime? What Florida law says

Joe Saunders, senior political director with Equality Florida, told the Miami Herald that the “level of overkill” that Dos Passos experienced “is often one of the hallmarks of hate-motivated violence.”

“So whenever a transgender person is murdered, especially when it is with such brutality, the question should be asked about whether or not this was a hate-motivated crime,” Saunders asserted.

The motive behind her killing was not immediately known.

Out on probation

The beating death happened six days after Gibert was sentenced to four years probation for aggravated assault with no intent to kill and attempted robbery with a weapon. Gibert also got one year in prison for those crimes from April 5, 2023, but his 377 days in county corrections custody before sentencing counted as time served.

READ MORE: Miami man who allegedly murdered trans woman was on probation. His criminal past is lengthy

Gibert’s address is listed as “unknown” on the current arrest form, but his Florida Department of Corrections online entry says he was living in an apartment in the aforementioned two-living unit house on Northwest First Avenue in Miami.

His aliases include Gregory Fitzgerald Gilbert and Fitzgerald Gibert.

Miami Herald staff writer Devoun Cetoute contributed to this report.