An article printed today from the P-I

Attack on 2 men on Capitol Hill may have been hate crime
Gay slur used during beating

By KERY MURAKAMI AND HECTOR CASTRO
P-I REPORTERS

Brad Crelia said he used to feel safe from anti-gay attacks on Capitol Hill.

He'd moved from Spokane to Seattle just to live in the city's traditionally gay neighborhood.

But then this weekend, he'd noticed the posters in the neighborhood warning of a spate of anti-gay attacks.

And on Monday, his head was sore, and his boyfriend's nose was scraped raw and possibly broken after they were attacked about a block from their home early Sunday morning.

Crelia, 22, said he and his partner, Thomas Colonna, 27, were crossing East Olive Way and East Howell Street -- an area with two gay bars, the Crescent and the Elite -- around 2 a.m., when they heard a car peel off from a light. Racing toward them, the car swerved, and screeched to a halt.

Crelia, who was using a cane because he had broken a toe recently, said he and Colonna threw up their hands in anger as if to say "slow down." That's when the car stopped, Crelia said.

Three young men, and one man headed for Crelia.

The man grabbed Crelia's wooden cane and began hitting him in the face and kicking him. Crelia said the man used a gay slur as he beat him, and that two others grabbed Colonna, with at least one punching him in the face.

Police said witnesses chased the men back into their car, and Crelia said they drove toward the northbound Interstate 5 onramp. One witness got the car's license plate number.

Both were treated at Harborview Medical Center for cuts and bruises, then released.

There have been no arrests, and police have not yet determined if it will be handled as a bias crime. But the detective who handles bias crimes is investigating it.

The suspects were in a white BMW. Police described the three attackers as young and wearing brightly colored clothing. One was described as about 6 feet tall and wearing a white or gray sweater vest.

Crelia said he and Colonna were holding hands before the attack, but he's not sure if the car stopped because they were gay. "I don't know if it started as a hate crime, but I think it quickly escalated into one," he said.

The attack occurred a little more than a day after the King County Prosecutor's Office, working the Gay City Health Project, began putting up the posters in neighborhood businesses warning people of seven gay-bashing incidents last year, most of them in the neighborhood.

"It's disappointing," said Mike Logan, an assistant county prosecutor, who spearheaded the poster effort, said Monday. "I thought it was quieting down. But I guess it shows we're on the right track in warning people."

The posters include safety tips, advising gays and lesbians to not walk alone at night.

Crelia, though, wasn't walking alone, he said, and Olive Way was busy as bars were closing.

He's not sure what's behind the gay bashing incidents recently. More clubs in the neighborhood seem to be catering to a straight crowd, drawing more people who aren't comfortable around gays, he said.

But Crelia said he's not giving up on the neighborhood. "We just have to find a way to get it back to where it was."