The Suspects of an Anti-Gay Bias Assault Thought They Were the Victims

Turns out, a gay man assaulted in Capitol Hill the morning after the election wasn’t the only one who called the police.

The suspects called two minutes later, suggesting they were the victims. 

According to police reports, the two men, who may have been brothers, drove a Porsche Cayenne with a Trump/Vance flag and called the victim, his partner, and a small group of friends and acquaintances “fags.” One offended acquaintance threw his drink into the car, and the driver responded with a metal baseball bat.

As first reported by Capitol Hill Seattle Blog, and confirmed by the Seattle Police Department, the suspects called police from a parking garage at Swedish Hospital in First Hill at 1:38 am on November 6, two minutes after the victims called 911.

One suspect said his brother had been hit in the face with a drink and required medical attention. He said he believed they’d been targeted for the Trump/Vance flag on their car, but refused to give his name to police until officers arrived. 

Police searched multiple garages and could not find the men, or reach them by phone. 

The victim’s partner shared his story at the West Precinct the following afternoon. As The Stranger reported Friday, the victim, his partner and three acquaintances were outside Dave’s Hot Chicken, and walking back to Pony, a gay bar on E. Madison St. where they’d spent most of the evening, when they encountered the suspects in their car. He believed they’d been singled out, as others at Pony had seen the car in the area before the attack.

According to the victim and his partner, the suspects shouted “fags” from the Porsche. As the car slowed, one of the acquaintances hurled a drink through the open window and hit one suspect in the head. 

The suspects got out of the car and the driver grabbed a metal bat from his trunk. He argued with the men on the sidewalk and swung at the victim, connecting hard enough with his elbow and tricep to bruise him. The victim later sent police photos of his injuries and a video of the assault, saying he wanted to aid the prosecution.

Based on the video, police discovered the temporary tags on their Porsche were registered to a Kia Soul. It’s unclear if the Washington DOL made a mistake, or the men stole the tag and used it on purpose, an officer noted.

Police are investigating the incident as an “assault with bias elements,” a level below a hate crime. SPD says it has to talk to the suspects to know for sure to know if homophobia motivated the crime itself. 

While logs and a report show that police both looked for the suspects and investigated the scene of the assault on the same night, it’s unclear which call police responded to first.

According to a police report, SPD officers arrived at the scene of the crime, which is down the block from the East Precinct, at 2:58 am, about 80 minutes after the call, and cleared the scene nine minutes later.

From call logs, it’s unclear if police had connected the two calls on the night of the assault. When the victim called police at 1:36 am, he said one of the suspects had hit him with a bat and fled southbound on 12th Ave., but did not mention the drink. In their 1:38 am call to police, the suspects report that someone had thrown a drink into their car because they were flying a Trump/Vance flag, and claimed they needed medical attention. They did not mention the slurs or the baseball bat.

SPD couldn’t say when it dispatched officers to the parking garage because there were “multiple duplicate calls” and multiple officers assigned to the case. On Monday, police said they’d get back with an answer after some research, but as of now, the office is closed until December 2.

In the call log, police say they weren’t able to reach the suspect by phone or in person, which suggests that they might have the suspect’s phone number. SPD wouldn’t confirm if they did, citing public information policy. 

SPD says the detectives have requested it not share any additional details about this open and active investigation.

Neither Mayor Bruce Harrell or City Council Member Joy Hollingsworth has made a public statement about the assault.

Harrell’s office says SPD handles all city messaging on bias incidents. Hollingsworth did not answer our Wednesday afternoon email asking how she’d first heard of the incident, and why she hadn’t made a public statement or proactively told the public about the crime.