As bars gave last call on Saturday night, a man in his early 40s was walking home through the Central District when two men, unprovoked, attacked him. According to a police report, a responding officer said the man "had fresh injuries to his right eye, mouth, chin, nose, and hands.… I also observed that his all white clothing was splattered with numerous drops of blood.” The man told the officer “he was assaulted because of his sexual orientation.”

According to the report, the man was wearing a white sailor suit on the rainy night. After attending Gay Bingo downtown, he went to Bus Stop, the bar on Olive Way, and left with a friend around 1 a.m. The two parted ways and the man continued walking home alone.

While walking east on East Columbia Street, near the intersection of 13th Avenue—a block from Seattle University—a male voice yelled the word “faggot.” A second man then yelled, “Where the fuck are you coming from?” The man did not turn around. He was proceeding up the sidewalk when the two men attacked him from behind.

The suspects “began to punch him over and over about the head and the body,” the police report says. “The two male suspects repeatedly yelled the word ‘faggot’ throughout the duration of the assault,” the report continues. Then the man “fell to the sidewalk where he subsequently received numerous kicks to his torso.”

From the ground, the man began to fight back. He landed several “good kicks” and one “good punch,” he reportedly told police, before the suspects fled the scene. He described the attackers as Caucasian men in their 20s and said they smelled strongly of marijuana.

The man didn’t call police officers for a few hours after the attack because he was “processing what had happened,” he told police. He says a friend convinced him to report the assault.

The officer searched the crime scene. “Given the delay and rainy weather,” the officer’s report concludes, “it is likely that any blood evidence had already washed away.”

Coincidentally, there’s a vigil scheduled in response to a “recent upsurge in hate crimes against members of LGBTQ community” this Saturday, February 28 from 8:00 p.m. to 9:30 p.m. at the pillars on Boren Avenue and Pike Street. The organizers, Queer Ally Coalition, write on the vigil's Facebook page, “We would like to invite you to light a candle for the people who have fallen victim to hate crimes in our community and throughout the rest of the country.”