Unfinished Lives

Remembering LGBT Hate Crime Victims

Gay Seattle Man Brutally Attacked by Mob; Police Call Bashing “A Hate Crime”

Jason Jacobs, gay 37-year-old, attacked in his own neighborhood.

Jason Jacobs, gay 37-year-old, attacked in his own neighborhood.

Seattle, Washington – A 37-year-old gay man was attacked early Monday morning by a gang of women and men who yelled anti-gay slurs as they ran him down in the gay-friendly Capitol Hill neighborhood of Seattle.  KOMO News 4 reports that police are calling the attack a bias-driven hate crime.

Jason Jacobs told reporters and the Seattle Police Department that he was walking down the street in his own neighborhood a bit past midnight on Monday when two women and three men called out slurs about his sexual orientation, chased him down, and assaulted him with fists and kicks until he lay unconscious with a fractured eye socket, a broken nose,  a major concussion, and two cracked ribs.  Jacobs says he did not get a good look at his assailants, but knows other witnesses did–if they will only come forward.  The attack took place in front of a Starbucks Coffee Shop, but only one witness has come forward to file a report with the SPD.  Jacobs’ cries for help drew the witness to respond out of a feeling that, if he were subjected to such an attack, he would want someone to reach out to him.   The witness stayed with Jacobs until an ambulance arrived to transport him to a local hospital.

Jacobs says that his pink shirt and shoes may have first attracted the attention of the gang of women and men, the Huffington Post reports.  “Hopefully somebody saw something,” Jacobs told KIRO News. “Hopefully we can get some justice.”  On Tuesday, he returned to the scene of his attack, seeking to encourage others to come forward and help police with the investigation.  Looking at the stains of his own blood still on the sidewalk, Jacobs says that he has lost the feeling of safety and security he once had in the Capitol Hill area.

Seattle Police have assigned this case to their bias crimes division.  In their report, investigators describe the three men suspected of the crime as being in their 20s and of “unknown race,” while the two women were described as “Hispanics” with dark hair.  As of this writing, no arrests have been made.

August 6, 2013 - Posted by | Anti-LGBT hate crime, Beatings and battery, Gang violence, gay bashing, gay men, GLBTQ, Hate Crimes, Heterosexism and homophobia, LGBTQ, Slurs and epithets, Unsolved LGBT Crimes, Washington State | , , , , , , , , , ,

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