A Wisconsin man who survived a brutal Christmas Eve gay bashing six years ago was stabbed to death this week on his birthday.
Police have arrested a suspect in the Monday morning murder of 49-year-old Andrew Nesbitt, and said they have not ruled out the possibility that the killing was a hate crime, We Are Green Bay reports.
The suspect, 23 year-old Darrick Anderson, does not appear to have known the victim.
Nesbitt previously suffered a violent attack outside of then-gay bar P.J.’s in Oshkosh on Christmas Eve that sent him to the hospital for emergency brain surgery.
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“He was celebrating with his friends, and two men had come into the bar, and whether they knew that they were in a gay bar or not is unknown,” Nesbitt’s friend Kathy Flores told We Are Green Bay, “but they left and not too long after [Nesbitt] went out to have a cigarette and they were waiting for him.”
Though that attack left Nesbitt with multiple broken bones, Flores said he maintained a positive attitude, always believing that love would win.
“I said, ‘I’m sorry there’s so much hate in the world,” Flores recalled. “And he said, ‘Well, I can also attest to the fact that there’s more love than there is hate and so I believe that love will win.'”
While love couldn’t save Nesbitt’s life, Flores hopes his story can help save someone else’s.
