Police are investigating a beating that, they suspect, may have been motivated based on the victim's sexuality. It happened late Sunday night in Midtown Tulsa.
23-year old Brandon Patrick says he was walking through the intersection of 13th and S. Rockford Avenue, when he was assaulted by three people who were yelling homosexual slurs at him.
The victim says the attack was sudden and brutal. "I was just looking up and saw three people kicking me, hitting me and biting me in my face."
23-year-old Brandon Patrick has four staples in head, bite marks, scratches, even a stab wound in his knee. He says he did nothing to provoke Sunday night's attack. He believes he was targeted because he is gay.
"The guy jumps out of the car and started punching me in the head as one of the the women is screaming you gay this, you gay that. You are going to die of AIDS."
There were two women and one man involved in the attack. They were driving an older model maroon Ford Mustang.
Tulsa Police Officer Jason Willingham says if the suspects are caught, they would most likely face charges of assault with a deadly weapon, as opposed to a hate crime. Because Oklahoma doesn't have a state law that prohibits a person from being targeted for violence based on their sexuality. "When you have the type of statements that were made in this particular crime, it sure has all the indicators of what could be a hate crime. If there was such a statute on the state books."
"This needs to remind us that we live in a diverse city," says Toby Jenkins. He is president of Oklahomans for Equality.
Jenkins hopes Patrick's willingness to tell his story publicly will raise awareness, and prompt Oklahoma to pass legislation to protect people based on their sexuality, similar to a federal law that may be passed in the coming weeks.
"It would make it a crime to commit an act of violence against an individual because of their sexual orientation, gives support to local law enforcement and to prosecutors, to prosecute that crime at a higher level."
Police say attacks like this probably happen more often than they know about, because the victims are afraid to file a police report.
Brandon Patrick hopes his story will empower other victims. "Don't be afraid to stand up for yourself and have a voice and say hey, this is what happened to me. So that will hopefully in the future prevent this sort of thing from happening."
