Update:
Denver Police said via Twitter just before 6 p.m. Tuesday evening that Tilo Sandoval, 20, had turned himself in one day after police announced he was wanted on an arrest warrant.
Sandoval, who turned himself in shortly after his photograph appeared on news broadcasts across the region, faces felony charges of assault causing injury, second-degree assault and bias-motivated crime in the attack on Jared Olson.
Sandoval is being held in Denver’s downtown jail on $30,000 bond. His first court appearance is scheduled for Wednesday morning.
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DENVER – Police in Denver have identified a suspect in last week’s brutal beating of a gay man that left the victim facing costly reconstructive surgery.
Investigators say they are investigating the attack as an anti-gay hate crime, and are looking for 20-year-old Tilo Sandoval, their primary suspect in the case.
Last week, Jared Olson, 23, said he and a friend were leaving Sam’s Hookah Lounge in Denver around 2 a.m. on Labor Day when they were approached by a group of people in the parking lot yelling gay slurs. Olson said one man got particularly aggressive.
“He kept asking ‘What are you looking at faggot’ and he walked to my door, pulled my door open, and hit me in the face,” Olson said. “My clothes when I went to the hospital were covered in blood.”
“I don’t have a doubt in my mind they had a problem with us being gay,” he said.
Sandoval is described as about 5-foot-9 and 145 pounds, with prominent tattoos, and are asking the public for help in locating him.
Watch a report from KDVR-TV:
Friends and supporters have created a Facebook page called Justice for Jared, which is following his recovery and the criminal investigation of his attack.