Mallory Owens tells local CBS affiliate attack was not a 'hate crime'
A 23-year old lesbian from Mobile, Ala., was allegedly beaten by her girlfriend's brother on Thanksgiving in what some are calling a blatant anti-gay hate crime. Mallory Owens was attacked by Travis Hawkins, Jr., Thursday, Nov. 22, at the home of her girlfriend, Ally Hawkins, according to Alabama NBC affiliate Local 15.
Hawkins has been charged with second degree assault.
Equality Alabama, a statewide LGBT organization, is continuing to collect facts surrounding the case, according to State Rep. Patricia Todd (D-Jefferson), the organization’s chair. Equality Alabama is confident in the investigators, Todd added in a phone interview with GA Voice today.
“The only reason she was beaten is that she was the partner of the sister,” Todd said.
With 50 surveillance cameras located throughout Atlantic Station’s 138-acre complex of residences and retail businesses, finding out exactly when and where a gay man said he was assaulted on the property is apparently no easy task.
Atlantic Station security personnel are still poring through “hours and hours” of video as part of its investigation into the alleged Aug. 4 attack on John Mark Parker, 50, as he was walking to the Fenuxe Fire Party in the former Fox Sports Grill.
“I know we are working closely with the Atlanta Police Department and working closely with them to go through hours and hours of footage,” said Elizabeth Hagin, spokesperson for Atlantic Station. “Everything we have so far has been turned over to APD.”
Reports surfaced this morning that a security guard working at the Washington, D.C. headquarters of the Family Research Council was shot in the early hours of Wednesday morning. Some media outlets have reported that the alleged gunman posed as an intern to enter the building.
Here's what Fox News reported this afternoon:
Days after he told police he was attacked in an apparent anti-gay assault, John Mark Parker is still being sought by the Atlanta Police Department for a critical follow-up interview to determine if the attack should be investigated as a hate crime.
Parker, 50, told APD Aug. 4 he was punched in the face by a white male at Atlantic Station as he was walking to the Fenuxe Fire Party. He has yet to respond to repeated requests for an interview by the APD. Parker said the male asked him, "Are you gay?" and when Parker said, "Yes," he was punched in the face and knocked to the ground.
"We continue to reach out to the victim, but have not yet been successful in reaching him in order to complete an interview for investigative follow-up. Zone 5 investigators need to conduct that interview so we can get specific details on the incident," said APD spokesperson Carlos Campos.
Three young men who beat a gay man in southwest Atlanta while shouting “faggot” at him were sentenced July 13 to serve five years in prison with another five years on probation.
Fulton Superior Court T. Jackson Bedford sentenced Christopher Cain, 18; Dorian Moragne, 19; and Darael Williams, 17, as several loved ones of the defendants audibly cried in court. All men were already on probation for other crimes.
Another defendant, Javaris Bradford, has eluded police and a warrant is out for his arrest. FBI officials say Bradford is the one who videotaped the Feb. 4 attack that was uploaded to a hip hop website and went viral, making the beating a national story. He faces the same charges as the other three defendants: participation in criminal gang activity, robbery by force and two counts of aggravated assault.
A lively group of more than 40 Pre-K children crowded together on a recent Wednesday morning at the ABC Early Learning Academy in Midtown and sat with their legs crossed, fidgeting and giggling while waiting for their speaker to be introduced.
On this day, March 7, that speaker was Brandon White, the gay 20-year old who was brutally beaten in southwest Atlanta last month after leaving a grocery store. A videotape of the attack was uploaded to the internet where it went viral. White’s audience with the children is his first official speaking engagement as part of his new anti-violence campaign, “Speak Out with Brandon.”
“If you guys are being bullied it can make a lot of things you do a lot harder than what they actually are,” White told the four and five-year olds. “If you’re being bullied at school, you may not want to go outside and play with the other kids, you may not want to talk to anyone, you may want to sit in the corner. But you’re not alone in what you do.”