From the Jul 1 – Jul 7, 2004 issue

News

Wounded Pride

Gay Man Viciously Attacked During Pride

by Amy Jenniges

Micah Painter was having a blast with his friends last Saturday night, dancing at a Pride party at the Timberline on Denny Way. Shortly after 1:30 a.m., as Painter walked alone to a friend's car to get a change of clothes, he was attacked on the sidewalk by three young men wielding broken bottles. He wound up at Harborview with a broken nose, gashes on his face, and a deep slash on his back that doctors had to staple shut.

Painter and his friends say the assault was a hate crime: The people who attacked him were yelling "Die, faggot," as they cut him with the bottles, he says. "The [main assailant] said, 'I have one question for you: Are you gay?'" says Painter, a 23-year-old with a blond buzz cut. "Then he broke the glass bottle and charged at me."

A few minutes earlier, Painter says, the three men had pulled up alongside Painter in a pickup truck just after he left the Timberline. "They started to yell at me, things like 'faggot,' and they flipped me off," Painter says. "I flipped them off back." Around the corner, the truck--a late-model white one with temporary plates--pulled up on the curb ahead of him, and the three guys got out. According to the police report, a witness saw "the driver of the vehicle get out after pulling up on the curb, break the vodka bottle against the building, and then start slashing the victim while the others were hitting" him.

Painter, who works as a trainer at the Gold's Gym on Broadway Avenue, tried to fight back. "I was holding a couple pairs of car keys, so I tried to use those," he says. After a few minutes, the attackers jumped back into their truck and drove off. Painter considered walking to the police station a few blocks away, but went back to the Timberline instead, where someone called the police. Painter's white pants and denim jacket were soaked with blood when his friends found him.

Now, Painter's friends are badgering the police to make sure the assault is investigated as a hate crime. An SPD spokes- person says that prosecutors, not the police, make that determination. They've called City Council Member Tom Rasmussen's office to ask for help getting the 911 tapes, and they're trying to see if any of the office buildings around the assault scene caught the suspects on security cameras. They're also throwing a benefit at the LGBT Center--scheduled for July 11 at 6:00 p.m. --to help Painter pay his rent while he's recuperating.

amy@thestranger.com