Vancouver Rocked By 3rd Summer Gay Bashing
by Rich Peters
365Gay.com Newscenter, Vancouver

August 21, 2002

(Vancouver, BC) Police are investigating the third case of gay bashing this summer. The most recent attack occurred near the city's gay village. Police say a man walking with a male friend was attacked by three men.

Constable Sarah Bloor said that while police do not know if the victim was gay, his attackers believed he was and made derogatory comments about his sexual orientation as they beat him.

Bloor said the man was punched and kicked repeatedly.

The victim's friend was not attacked and called 911 on his cell phone to report the incident as it occurred.

The victim was treated at the scene and did not need hospitalization.

On July 21, a car deliberately tried to run down two young men as they crossed Davie Street. Investigators say four people in the car were yelling anti-gay epithets as the vehicle careened towards the pair.

The men managed to jump out of the way of the speeding car, but it ran a red light and T-boned another vehicle.

The Jaws Of Life were needed to free the female driver of the smashed car.

A week earlier, a man was beaten by two men on Pacific Avenue. With the help of a passerby he was able to chase down his attackers and hold them until police arrived. Two American sailors are charged with assault and weapons offences.

Meanwhile, there has still been no arrest in last November's murder of Aaron Webster. Webster, 41, was beaten to death with a baseball bat in what police have labelled in hate crime. He was found naked and dying in a parking lot in a cruising area of Stanley Park, November 2.

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