Sacramento Police Investigating Midtown Stabbing As Hate Crime
SACRAMENTO (CBS13) — A brutal attack in Midtown Sacramento on three local musicians is now being investigated as a hate crime.
Police say the suspect used a gay slur as he stabbed the musicians outside a Midtown bar.
Timothy Brownell was originally charged with felony assault, but after further investigation they believe he may have yelled f----- before the alleged attack.
Officers converged on the 25-year-old's Midtown apartment late Monday afternoon to arrest him on hate crime charges.
"A physical altercation ensued and at the time the suspect produced a knife and assaulted the victims," said Sacramento Police spokesman Justin Brown.
A Facebook post detailed the Sunday night incident at 21st and O streets. It shows Blake Abbey, a lead singer of local band Musical Charis, lying in a hospital bed after being stabbed several times.
Abbey says in the post that he and two other musicians were leaving a Midtown bar when someone they were approached by someone who called them the slur because they were wearing tight jeans.
Jason Duvall works as a bartender at Alley Katz a bar near the scene of the fight.
"If it was over some skinny jeans I mean thats pretty pathetic in my mind," he said.
Two of the three who were stabbed are still in the hospital.