Gay Man Recounts Hate Crime

A gay man said he was knocked to the ground and beaten b.y two male attackers who called him anti-gay names while punching and kicking him as he was walking home this month from a bus stop in Washington D.C.

Francisco Martin said one of the two attackers struck him in the face and head July 6 with a nine-inch wide sheet of plywood while the other knocked him to the ground and kicked him.

Washington D.C. police have listed the incident as a bias-related crime and are seeking the public’s assistance in identifying suspects. The department’s Gay & Lesbian Liaison Unit is assisting in the investigation.

“I just tried to cover my face; I just started yelling, ‘stop, stop,’ and they just wouldn’t stop,” Martin told the Blade in a phone interview. “They just [kept] beating me until they ripped my shirt off. I was on the ground bleeding.”

Martin said he managed to walk about three blocks to his home after the attackers stopped beating him.

“They were saying like ‘faggot’ or all these derogatory things,” said Martin, who is Latino.

Martin said he is cooperating with police and is hopeful that the investigation will result in the arrest of the two men who attacked him.