Brutal Gay Bashing Leaves John Skaggs Hospitalized After Man Breaks Pool Cue Over His Face
John Skaggs, a 52-year-old regular at Sandbar club in downtown Shreveport, is now in the hospital with horrific facial injuries — including a broken jaw and eye socket — after a reported gay bashing, KSLA reports. William Payne has been charged with attempted second-degree murder after allegedly breaking a pool cue over the face of Skaggs, completely unprovoked. Video surveillance caught the attack and witnesses say Payne made threatening comments toward Skaggs; the two men had no interaction otherwise. Security at Sandbar held Payne down until authorities arrived. Payne faces an additional charge of committing a hate crime.
This level of violent homophobia is just terrifying. I hope this monster spends the rest of his life in jail, but I can already imagine him using the gay panic defense, despite the fact that the victim seems to not even have interacted with him.
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I am from Shreveport. I am completely ashamed that someone from my hometown could do such a thing to another human being. That poor man or any other human being for that matter deserves to be beaten like that just because of who the choose to date. It is idiots who are insecure with themselves & their ignorance that is hurting our society. I am a 34 year old married woman. I have friends who are gay, straight, & just plain strange. Just because someone is gay doesn’t make them a monster. ACTIONS make people Monsters, and what these people did to Mr Skaggs make them monsters no Mr. Skaggs.
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Is it just me, or is homophobia getting all the more violent? This is just sad! I had to look away from Skaggs’ post-beating picture. I hope the son of a bitch gets the shit kicked out of him in jail. I don’t want my tax dollars spending a dime on that bastard’s prison meal!
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Reportedly, Skaggs didn’t even know who Payne was, until he started gay slurring him (after Payne and supposedly his brother were derogatorily talking about Skaggs), and then eventually attacked him with the pool stick.
What a sad, sad story, no different than the story in Canada at the springs. Just another redneck threatened by a gay person. Hate crimes are almost always based on fear/insecure/a sense of threat. It’s an attack or be attacked mentality. Skaggs is going to be facing a long recovery, my heart goes out to him and his loved ones.