Eyewitness Disputes Self-Defense Claim in Philly Gay Bashing

An eyewitness' account of last week's brutal attack on two gay men in Philadelphia disputes any impending claim of self-defense from attorneys representing the men and women allegedly involved in the assault.

As attorneys for the "clean cut hate gang" reportedly involved in the September 11 assault and robbery of two gay men in Center City Philadelphia prepare for the imminent arrests of their clients, hints of a self-defense argument from the alleged assailants begin to emerge, Bucks County Courier Times reports.

"Let's see what the facts are. Let's see who did what and then we can make a decision." Said, Louis Buscico, attorney for one of the men allegedly involved in the attack, adding "the scenario is dramatically opposed and substantially different than the media accounts to date."

The Courier Times reports that while Busico declined to elaborate, some are claiming that one of the victims of the attack ignited the assault after random contact with a woman who was with the crowd of 12 to 15 people who are believed to be involved.

In contrast, an eyewitness to the assault told Philly Mag his account of the event.

"I don't see how it could be self-defense. There were 12 people there." Said Geoff Nagle, whose third floor apartment was in plain sight of the attack. "The self-defense thing is a little crazy to me. It wasn't like a guy just threw a punch to protect himself and ran away. That's not what happened here. There were multiple punches to the one guy's face -�on both sides of his face."

Nagle elaborated on the attack. "It seemed to me that the two larger guys were fed up with what the other guys were saying, and one of the victims was pushing one of the women away, but just a little bit. And I could also hear some slurs like "fucking faggot" and I also heard someone say "I am sick of this fucking faggot." If you saw the victims, they were small, not as large as the two guys. And then, it happened so quickly, one of the victims is lying unconscious, bleeding from the head. There wound up being a one- to two-foot puddle of blood where he was hit and knocked unconscious. He wasn't moving. There was a blood stain on the ground until it rained two days later."

Although anti-gay epithets used during an assault usually constitutes a hate crime, the current law on the books in Pennsylvania includes "malicious intention toward the race, color, religion or national origin," but does not include sexual orientation. That is something openly gay state representative Brian Sims would like to see changed.

"One of the things I've learned is that sometimes it takes a horribly negative experience to get people out of their seats, for them to be active and engaged," says State Representative Brian Sims of his colleagues in Harrisburg according to Philly Mag. "It's not necessarily because they're opposed but because they aren't aware of the need. So we are going to be sure to utilize this horrible event to make sure that they hear about it. I'm going to be bringing two people with me who will be able to tell them all about it."

According to the Philly Police blog, on September 11, 2014, at 10:45 p.m., two white males, aged 26 and 28, were on the 1600 block of Chancellor Street when they were approached by a group of unknown white males and females. As the group approached the complainants they started saying anti-gay slurs at the pair. According to NBC Philadelphia, the victims say someone in the group asked whether they were a couple. When they told them yes, the group allegedly began to attack them, punching and kicking them in the face, head and chest.??"Three guys were on me taking turns on me," said the 26-year-old victim. "I had three, four guys on me. I turned around and saw his (my boyfriend's) head hit the ground, like hard," said the 28-year-old victim. "I was horrified. I thought he was dead."

During the assault one of the victims dropped his bag containing his cell phone, wallet and credit cards. When police approached, one of the suspects picked the bag up from the ground. The group then fled and were last seen north on 16th Street towards Walnut Street.

Both victims were transported to Hahnemann Hospital for multiple injuries. One of the men was treated for fractures and deep lacerations to his face requiring surgery and his jaw wired shut.