Deputies release sketch of man who assaulted woman in gay marriage hate crime

Mlive ^ | 4-2-2014 | Kyle Feldscher

[Darren McCarty]

Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office deputies released a sketch of the man believed to have assaulted a woman who he called a gay slur in Ypsilanti Township.

The Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office detective bureau is now investigating the assault of a woman who was targeted by her assailants because she is a lesbian.

Sheriff’s office spokesman Derrick Jackson said detectives met the 28-year-old woman again Wednesday to further develop a suspect description. Jackson said the sketch will hopefully help identify the suspect.

Snipped

Sheriff’s office officials have said they have no reason to doubt the woman’s report and her injuries — which included severe face and eye injuries, in addition to bruising in the torso — are consistent with her description of the assault.

Jackson said the suspects haven’t been located to this point.

She described one of the men to investigators as white, in his mid-20s, between 5-feet-10 inches to 5-feet-11 inches tall, heavy set or obese and with a low or husky voice. The woman said he was wearing a gray or black hooded sweatshirt and three-quarter length high-top shoes.

[GeronL]

Heh

[cripplecreek]

I’m Homerphobic. I run from the house screaming every time the Simpsons come on the TV.

[rabidralph]

It looks like Tiger Woods.

[rabidralph]

I bet it was one of these guys.

[E. Pluribus Unum]

Doh!

[AppyPappy]

One other thing to consider. She runs her mouth at someone in the lot and they assault her. She just adds the Hate stuff to make the crime bigger.

[Scoutmaster]

I was in for April 14.

I'd like to hear more about these "severe eye injuries." If the victim severely injured her eyes intentionally, that requires a much deeper commitment than the usual hoax.

Self-inflicted severe eye injuries would decrease the likelihood of hoax, but wouldn't eliminate it.

I'm still in for April 14.

[a fool in paradise]

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

I’m not so sure. Typically when someone wants to fake an injury to themselves, their first thought is to bash themselves in the face, and that can lead to an eye injury, while their intent was something like a black eye.

Here is a picture from a previous hoax attack.

http://i.imgur.com/p96ZJFq.jpg

But investigating this further, look at the logic of the event itself. Men approach a woman who is by herself, screams a homosexual slur at her and attacks her.

The obvious question is how did he know she was a homosexual?

Her suggestion that during a brief lapse in the law she had married her girlfriend and it was in the news, is pretty weak. It would suggest that one or more of the attackers already knew her, lived in that neighborhood, etc.

People are so bad at identifying strangers from memory that most police line-ups fail, even when there was intense and close interaction during an event. So they saw somebody in the news and were able to recognize them on the street? Not likely.