US: Gay man punched and called ‘faggot’ in DC supermarket
A gay man was the victim of a homophobic attack in a Washington DC supermarket, according to reports.
The Washington Blade reports that Mark Rutstein was attacked on July 2 inside a Safeway, on 5th and L Streets.
According to police, Rutstein was repeatedly punched and harassed by an African-American woman, who fled the shop following the incident.
The initial police report did not label the assault as a hate crime, despite the woman labelling him a “faggot”, but police told the Blade they are now investigating whether to treat the incident as such.
Rutstein said she attacked him after he approached the customer service queue.
He said: “So I walked up to the side of her and I said, ‘Excuse me, ma’am, are you in this line?’ And she looked at me as if she had more anger in her eyes than I have seen in a while.”
The women then began calling him a faggot and punching him.
He said: “I grabbed her dreads and I pulled her dreads down onto the floor and I restrained her in that position while she was continuing to try to punch my face but my reach was too far.
“And I’m screaming for security and for them to call the police. All of the people on the line and working at the registers were frozen.
“[Security] came at me like I was the assaulter and quickly told me to let go. When I did let go they did nothing to restrain her.”
“I told the assistant manager why aren’t you calling police? And he said if you want the police there’s the police station across the street.”
The police have released CCTV footage of the suspect below:
