A couple, Tristan Perry and Spencer Deehring, were leaving a gay bar in Downtown Austin when a group of men yelled homophobic slurs and repeatedly hit them.
The couple was walking hand in hand down 3rd Street toward Congress Ave. around 2:20 a.m. on Saturday. While walking to their car a man walked past them yelling homophobic slurs. The man then called over a group to join in on harassing the couple. The group then began to kick and punch the couple until they were both laying in the street unconscious.
“They started following behind us pretty closely yelling every expletive you can think of,” Deehring said. “The last thing I said to one of the guys before they attacked both of us was like, ‘I don’t have anything more to say to you guys, we’re just going home, leave us alone.'”
A witness called 911 and waited with the couple until police and EMS arrived. This witness also claims that one of the men that attacked the couple threatened the witness not to call for help. The couple was then hospitalized.
“Living in Corpus Christi and moving to Austin, I thought, ‘Oh everyone is going to be so open-minded,'” Perry said. “I think that a lot of people think that and it’s overlooked that this could happen to anybody, anywhere, anytime.”
The group of men has now been identified as Frank Macias, Quinn O’Connor, Miguel Macias and Kolby Monell. Each of them are facing two counts of aggravated assault, a second degree felony and are being held on a $300,000 bond.
Witnesses and surveillance video from the night of the attack were used to find the men responsible. The owners of Rain on 4th and Oilcan Harry’s, popular gay clubs in Austin, offered a combined $5,000 reward to people that could help identify the group of men.
“For too long gay-bashings have threatened our community. Historically and still to this day establishments like ours have provided sanctuary and security from these incidents. At Rain on 4th and Oilcan Harry’s we strive daily to provide a safe and tolerant environment for our community and our actions do not stop at our doors. We will not stand by when our customers and community members are brutally assaulted simply for expressing their love,” Rain on 4th said in a statement on Facebook.
On top of the current charges the men are facing additional hate crime charges. The case has been referred to the Travis County Hate Crimes Task Force. Travis County District Attorney Margaret Moore said that she would pursue a hate crime charge.
The Texas Hate Crimes Act defines a hate crime “as crimes that are motivated by prejudice, hatred, or advocacy of violence including, but not limited to, incidents for which statistics are or were kept under Public Law 101-275 (the Federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act).
The Federal Hate Crimes Statistics Act defines a hate crime further “as crimes that manifest evidence of prejudice based on race, religion, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and (added in 1997) disability.
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