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Tuesday, March 20, 2012

LGBTQI-Z / Crime Gay Hate Crime Leads to Arrest

Posted by Alex Zielinski on Tue, Mar 20, 2012 at 10:29 AM

Smiths damaged car, more photos after jump

Aaron Spencer, qPDX
Smith's damaged car, more photos after jump

As breifly mentioned in Good Morning News, a gay couple was the target of a horrible hate crime on Wednesday, March 14 in downtown Portland. According to the Portland Police Bureau's report, the two gay men, Kiah Lawson and Sam Smith, were holding hands on their way into the Silverado Bar when the two male suspects approached them. After verbally abusing the pair with anti-gay slurs, a fight broke out, resulting in the two suspects kicking Lawson on the ground.

Breaking away, Lawson ran into Silverado to get help. Bar Manager Imer Rodriguez, after catching the suspect pair vandalizing Smith's parked car, chased the suspects into Waterfront Park, tackling one of them.

“While I was holding him down,” Rodriguez told qPDX. “He was talking about how ‘queers cause enough problems’ and how he ‘didn’t quite care for fags.’”

Police arrested Paul Anthony Martinson, 39, at the scene at booked him into the Multnomah County Jail. However, the other suspect managed to run off before the police arrived. Detectives remain on the search for the second suspect.

Smith says that the total damage to his Audi comes out to an estimated $4,200. More photos of the car carnage after the jump.