Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Gay Man Loses 14-Month Battle for Life After Possible Hate Attack

Baltimore, Maryland – Glen H. Footman, 52, died November 9 in the University of Maryland Shock and Trauma Center after what the Bangor Daily News called “a 14-month emotional and courageous battle for life” from gunshot wounds in a possible anti-LGBT hate attack in the Mouth Vernon section of Baltimore.  Footman was shot twice on September 22, 2008 after being seen walking hand-in-hand with his soul-mate and life partner of 12 years, Alejandro Chavarria.  According to Baltimore police, the two gay men were walking shortly after midnight when a young man on a bicycle came up behind them.  Footman turned to speak to the young man while Chavarria walked on ahead.  Chavarria shouted back to his partner, “Come on, let’s go,” when two shots rang out, and Footman fell, wounded to the pavement.  As Chavarria ran to help Footman, the assailant ran from the scene, but then raced back to collect his bike, and then made his getaway.  Police have been treating the case as a possible anti-gay hate crime from the beginning of their investigation.  The Baltimore Sun reports that the victim’s father, H. Rodney Footman of Brewer, Maine spoke to reporters by phone to say that Baltimore police have not been encouraging about ever locating the shooter.  The elder Footman has no doubt that his son was killed because he was gay.  Shortly before the attack, Footman’s father said, a witness overhead the assailant brag, “‘I’m going to kill myself a gay tonight.’ He took off with that intention and he did just that. Police were very up front with us in saying that the chance of this ever being solved is practically nil.”  Glen Footman’s death not only bereaves his relatives and his partner.  Footman was a force for good in the community who will be sorely missed by many.  He was a licensed alcohol and drug abuse counselor in Maine, Rhode Island, and Texas, and held degrees in business administration and pastoral theology.  He counseled youth in Maine and Texas.  He and Alex had moved to Maryland shortly before the shooting, where he was to take up a new job at an insurance company.  He leaves behind two children from a previous marriage, Nicole Leah and Blaine Jonathan. His beloved Alex, who the Bangor Daily News calls Footman’s “sustaining grace during his last challenging year of physical and emotional struggle,” has returned to San Antonio, where he and Glen first met.  Police have not yet ruled Footman’s death a homicide, pending the coroner’s report on whether the injuries sustained in the 2008 shooting were the actual cause of death.

November 28, 2009 - Posted by | Anglo Americans, anti-LGBT hate crime murder, gay men, gun violence, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, Latino and Latina Americans, Law and Order, Maine, Maryland, Perpetrators of Hate Crime, Remembrances, Texas, Unsolved LGBT Crimes | , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

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