Two men say they're the victims of a hate crime in downtown Austin.
"That is Emmanuel where he was on all fours. There is blood from here all the way down there," said Matthew Morgan, one of the attack victims.
Matthew Morgan and Emmanuel Winston say they were attacked early Saturday morning in the 100 block of Lavaca near Austin City Hall. They had just spent a few hours at Oil Can Harry's with members of their gay softball league and were walking back to their car which was parked in the City Hall garage. The two were just a few feet from the parking garage when they say they were attacked by four young black men.
"I had noticed that they were following us and listening in on our conversation, but I really didn't think anything of it,"said Emmanuel Winston. "I really just thought they were just real close right behind us. It really didn't hit me why they were so close behind us until we were attacked."
Winston still has bruises around his eyes and cuts on his cheeks.
"From what I remember it was around this area (near the parking garage) when I first felt the punch hit me in the back of the head," Winston said.
It wasn't until the attack was over that Winston and Morgan heard their assailants utter gay slurs.
"I was telling them things like, 'Why don't you fight face to face?' That is when they were saying fag, fagots amongst each other and directly to us," Morgan said.
"We don't investigate any crimes as hate crimes that's not for the police to decide. We investigate. It's being investigated as an assault," said Corp. Scott Perry, with APD.
Winston and Morgan are convinced this was a hate crime.
"There's no question in my mind that this is a hate crime. The attack was unprovoked. They attacked us from behind," said Winston.
"When they turned around and said 'Fagot' it hit me like a ton of bricks. And that's when I was like, 'Wow, I was just involved in a hate crime'," Morgan said.
Both men said they don't want vengeance, they want safety.
"A sense of being able to be gay and be able to walk the streets and not have to worry about being attacked for who we are," Winston said.
Equality Texas will host a news conference Thursday on this matter.
Then at 2pm Saturday, the Austin March against hate will begin at Oil Can Harry's and end at the City Hall parking garage to help draw attention to the attack.
