A 31-year-old gay man underwent surgery Dec 14 for a broken jaw after allegedly being called a fag and repeatedly punched and kicked as he left a house party on Commercial Dr, Dec 13.
Billy, who would give only his first name, says he was leaving the party with friends when a man standing nearby began to harass them. “He pushed my girlfriend on the floor. I went to help her up, and he kicked me in the face by my eye,” Billy alleges.
“He was trying to follow my lady friends, who were with me,” Billy says. “I was like, ‘Let’s go, let’s go,’ and he was like, ‘Shut up, you fucking fag,’ and then he just started beating me. He called me a fucking faggot, you fucking gay, you piece of shit, you’re worthless — just kept on calling me fag, fag, fag.”
Vancouver Police media relations officer Const Jana McGuinness confirms a report of an assault at Commercial and E 3rd Dec 13 just after 5 am. “There were a number of people fighting and it looks like a verbal argument between several people, which escalated into physical violence between two men,” she says.
Police arrested a 17-year-old man at the scene, McGuinness says, adding that she can’t confirm whether any charges have been laid yet.
Asked if the police report indicates homophobic remarks made during the incident, McGuinness says there was “an indication that some statements were made to the victim by the person who assaulted him,” but declined to elaborate.
“That’s what we’ll follow up on to see if there is the extra factor of is this a hate crime or not,” she says. “This would have gone to the hate crime unit as part of the original report; it’s flagged right away to that section,” she adds.
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