NEW YORK — A same-sex couple was bashed over the head with a wooden chair, knocked to the ground and kicked by two men hurling anti-gay slurs at a Manhattan restaurant Tuesday in an attack captured on a graphic video.
DNAinfo reports that Ethan York-Adams, 25, and Jonathan Snipes, 32, were attacked around 11:10 p.m. inside the Dallas BBQ restaurant in the Chelsea neighborhood, according to NYPD officials.
The beating came after the attacker lobbed several gay slurs at the couple.
“These guys attacked us specifically because they knew we weren’t their type of people,” Snipes told DNA. “It was disgusting. It was awful.”
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According to DNAinfo, the incident began when the couple finished up their drinks at the restaurant where they had gone to celebrate Cinco de Mayo.
While at the restaurant, Snipes got a text about a death in his family and needed to leave the restaurant quickly, he said. As he headed out, he accidentally knocked over a drink, he said.
“A table near us audibly started making pretty gross comments about the two of us like, ‘White faggots, spilling drinks,'” Snipes said.
Snipes said he confronted the men at the table when the attacker stood up and escalated the verbal confrontation.
“He turned it into a physical altercation very quickly,” he added.
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Neither of the victims were hospitalized, but Snipes told said he had cartilage in his ear snapped and a tooth knocked loose from the attack.
The man who posted the video, Isaam Sharef, said the attacker fled the restaurant — he is described as mid-30’s, 6′ 4″ tall. He has not been apprehended.
