Most crimes that we hear about in the Dallas gayborhood ostensibly involve heterosexual suspects robbing and/or assaulting gays who are going to and from the nightclubs.
But one gay man says he was jumped by a group of eight other gay men at about 3 a.m. Sunday, Oct. 17 in the parking lot of Kroger. The victim says he was knocked unconscious and he’ll need surgery to reconstruct his cheek bone, which was fractured in three places. Dallas police have classified the incident as an aggravated assault but say they have no suspects.
The victim said he had been to a bar downtown that caters to a black gay clientele. He and some friends then traveled to the Kroger parking lot on Cedar Springs, which has become a popular hangout after hours.
The victim said he and his friends overheard the suspects doing a lot of talking in the parking lot. Some sort of verbal exchange ensued before eight men, all black and gay, surrounded him. They knocked him to the ground before kicking him repeatedly in the head. A police report states that the victim suffered “massive swelling to his face.”
“I did hear there have been a lot of crimes going on over in that area,” the victim said Thursday. “I never heard of people just getting jumped randomly. They had no reason to jump on me, because I didn’t give them any reason to jump on me. I didn’t even say anything directly to them.”
The victim went to the hospital and reported the incident to police the following day.
“It was so swollen that my eyes were closed shut and my lips were actually hanging and I was drooling,” the victim said. “It’s gotten a little better but it’s really sore and tender. It looked like a big grapefruit inside of my cheek.”
The victim said he’ll be seeing an oral surgeon next week after the swelling goes down, and it will take him 4-6 weeks to recover. He said he’s not afraid to go back to the strip but added, “If I do decide to go out I’m going to watch my back.”
I have questions: Since you made it a point to let us know the suspects were black and had come from a black gay bar, I have to ask, is the victim black also?? And in regards to gay on gay assaults in Oak Lawn…uh..hello…that’s has always gone on and usually is unreported. I’ve been going out on the strip for over 20 years and have seen partners fight each other, exes fight each other, scorned boyfriends fight each other, guys from rival cliques fight, lesbians fight…you name it. I was at BJ’s a few months ago and there were about three white guys brawling outside. I guess what I’m trying to say it, gays fight each other. It happens all the time, and I think there’s probably more to this story. I find it odd though that race seems to be an issue in your reporting.
@Tony: Yes, the victim is black, and it is standard for us to provide basic suspect information such as race and sex. Also, saying that the bar in question caters to a black gay clientele is simply a statement of fact. Clearly we would have reported this incident in the same manner if it involved whites or Latinos or Asians. It was not two partners getting in a fight in a gay bar; it was a man being jumped by eight people in a parking lot and beaten severely. There’s a big difference.
This doesn’t sound like a random assault to me. This guy mentioned he was with friends in the parking lot. What were his friends doing while he was allegedly being assaulted by these eight guys? It sounds to me like this was a case of some queens mouthing off and they got into it. Eight guys sounds a litle suspicious to me. I gues it could be true, but there’s defintley some holes here. And I”m with Tony, gays fight each other on the strip all the time. However, gays in Dallas are a little more civil imo. You wanna see some real fighting queens, go to NY.