A judge has issued a $50K arrest warrant for Cole White, a 24-year-old Redwood City man suspected of assaulting a gay man at a the gay-friendly Santa Cruz nightclub Blue Lagoon, the Santa Cruz Sentinel reports:
The victim said White
called him a gay slur outside the club. He said he saw White at the bar
a few minutes later and turned to ask him if he was the man who had
just verbally accosted him on the sidewalk. Instead of answering, White
allegedly punched the victim in the face. The victim said he was
knocked to the ground and beaten for 10-15 seconds before someone
pulled him off the floor and rushed him outside.
Blue Lagoon manager Fred Friedman said the altercation actually began with bumping and name-calling inside the club, then went outside.
“This
gentleman and the other people decided to handle it themselves out on
the street,” said Friedman, who was working Saturday night and early
Sunday.Friedman said everyone involved came back in the bar, but were thrown out by security staff before police arrived.
The victim said he snapped a
cell phone photo of the man he said attacked him, something police
later used to identify White, Friend said. But outside the bar in the
moments after the fight, 23-year-old David Douglas Cameron allegedly
grabbed the cell phone and ran toward the levee, according to police.
The victim chased after him until police took up the pursuit and
apprehended Cameron, who police said is a friend of White's. Cameron
was arrested on suspicion of robbery.
The victim “suffered bruises, cuts, sore ribs and a possible broken nose” in the assault, which the club says it is taking very seriously.