Police Say Oak Lawn Robbery, Assault Victims Were Targeted For Being Gay
DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Dallas Police believe members of the LGBTQ community where targeted before they were beat up and robbed.
To call something a hate crime, police have to have evidence someone was targeted due to their race, religion or sexual orientation and that's exactly what Dallas Police believe happened to two victims as they were crossing of Knight and Brown early Sunday morning.
"It's really sad that you can't be safe in your own neighborhood," said Jon Moorehouse. "I don't care whether you're walking your dog or picking up groceries or whatever you do— you ought to feel safe."
The Dallas Police Department says gay slurs were shouted at two victims, before they were assaulted and robbed around 1:40 Sunday morning.
Oak Lawn residents, like Joe Robert, were surprised to hear LGBTQ members would be targeted in a neighborhood where many bars and restaurants fly a rainbow flag.
"I'm out all the time and it seems pretty friendly out here and it seems like a great area to live," said Robert.
The Dallas Police Department released a grainy picture of one of the alleged attackers.
He was accompanied by a woman. The couple got out of a silver SUV, possibly a Nissan Murano, and began hitting the victims. Then the female attacker snatched a cell phone from one of the victims before they left.
The suspects are still on the run. Police do have a partial license plate: K-R-K.
Police aren't not connecting this incident to the recent deaths or two transgender women in Dallas. Their deaths have not been ruled hate crimes.
"A lot of this, I felt like we took care of 40 years ago, and we keep thinking, we've gone past this and we haven't," said Moorehouse.