James Allen Carroll, a 24-year-old felon, was arrested last night at his San Diego apartment for the cowardly gay bashing that occurred following San Diego's Gay Pride festival over the weekend. A 16- and 17-year-old were also taken into custody yesterday with relation to the attack and police have asked for the juveniles to be charged as adults.
Tips from witnesses were able to lead police to Carroll's apartment, where they discovered evidence that linked him to the bashings. Witness accounts suggest that the attackers, who police say are involved with a group of approximately 50 members that call themselves the “Lowlifes” (no kidding).
Wearing a shirt with the slogan “Eracism”, Carroll and the other attackers waited for their victims in bushes near the lawn bowling center just outside of Balboa Park, where they sprang upon them with a knife and baseball bat, yelling anti-gay slurs.
Said Councilwoman Toni Atkins: “Lying in wait in bushes, . . . nothing can get much lower.”
One of the victims remains in the hospital with a fractured skull and has undergone a tracheotomy so he can breathe.
Ron deHarte, executive director of San Diego Pride, lauded the city's work in uncovering those behind the attacks: “We're extremely proud of the stand the mayor has taken and the position of the police chief. This was a brutal attack. These victims were going about their business and this attack was unprovoked. It was violent.”
Arrests made in attacks on gay men [san diego union tribune]
Previously
Mayor: San Diego Attack the “Very Definition of Hate Crime.” [tr]
San Diego Pride: Audience, Acceptance, Attacks [tr]
