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Gay mega political donor Ed Buck had at least 10 victims. Why didn’t police stop him sooner?

Ed Buck
Ed Buck Photo: Facebook

Last week Democratic donor Ed Buck was arrested for injecting a man with meth and almost killing him, and two other victims were found dead from overdoses in his apartment in the last two years.

Now investigators say that he has had at least 10 victims and even tied men down to inject them with meth and that he was known among homeless people as “Dr. Kevorkian.”

Related: Congressman donates gay donor’s contributions following second mysterious death

Federal investigators filed a court document that alleges that Buck sought out men who were struggling with homelessness and addiction, paying them for sex and to inject them with meth.

In 2017, Gemmel Moore, a young, black gay man, was found dead in Buck’s West Hollywood apartment. Investigators heard accusations that Buck was providing drugs to sex workers to watch them take them, but prosecutors declined to press charges because they didn’t believe there was enough evidence.

Earlier this year, a second man died in Buck’s apartment from a drug overdose, and earlier this month another man overdosed in Buck’s apartment and said that Buck tried to keep him from getting medical attention. He escaped and Buck was later arrested in that case.

Federal investigators have gotten involved and they have found at least ten potential victims.

A man identified as Victim 2 in the affidavit said that he fell asleep at Buck’s apartment and woke up to find himself tied to the couch and his arm red and sore. He believed that Buck injected him with meth while he slept.

Victim 4 had a similar story. He is a sex worker who met up with Buck and smoked meth with him for a few hours, and he said that Buck was very insistent that he take more drugs. He left, but he came back to Buck’s apartment to work again and passed out on the couch. He also believes Buck injected him with drugs while he was passed out.

The victim had to be taken to the hospital the next day. A doctor said an unknown substance was found in Victim 4’s body.

Victim 5 said that he was hired by Buck for sex and to take marijuana with him. Buck repeatedly insisted that he do meth, but he refused. When he left, Buck paid him $50 and said he would have paid more if Victim 5 took meth.

Victim 6 was homeless when he heard about Buck, who other homeless people called “Dr. Kevorkian” – a doctor who helped at least 130 people die by physician-assisted suicide. He went to Buck’s apartment where Buck told him to take meth. When he said he had never done meth and he only wanted a small dose, Buck injected him with a full syringe. He passed out.

Victim 6 went to Buck’s apartment again and was injected with more meth and passed out again.

Victim 7 said that when Buck hired him, he just said that he had an underwear fetish. But Buck insisted that he take meth, which he did, and Victim 7 said that it was strange because he immediately passed out (meth is a stimulant).

When he woke up, Buck had two more syringes of meth that he wanted to inject into Victim 7. He left, but he came back another time and injected himself with “meth” that he now thinks was a tranquilizer instead.

Victim 7 said that Buck wanted him to leave but he couldn’t move. Buck allegedly came at him with a power saw, and he got an “adrenaline rush” and was able to get out. Records from the app Zelle show that Buck paid Victim 7.

Victim 8 said that Buck gave him a “vodka,” but that he immediately passed out. He woke up but he couldn’t move, and Buck allegedly injected him with meth. Victim 8 said that Buck raped him.

Black LGBTQ activists in Los Angeles have long criticized police for not fully investigating Buck, even though they say his predatory behavior was well-known for years.

Commentator Jasmyne Cannick said that police refused to take the witnesses they found seriously because “they were too busy calling them male prostitutes.”

“This was two years of the black LGBTQ community in Los Angeles and beyond not letting it go,” she told the Guardian. “It was about damn time.”

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