VIOLENT CRIMES

Gay Man Shot At St. Petersburg Pride, No Major Injuries Reported

pridescene3_11044486_8colA St. Petersburg, Florida man is spending the week behind bars after committing what police say is the first violent incident at the city’s Gay Pride parade in over 11 years.

According to reports, 20-year-old Cornelius Davis was attending the city’s Pride festival in order to let the LGBT community know exactly what he thought of them. At around 9:25am, he was seen taunting a group of parade-goers with anti-gay slurs, yelling for them to “put some clothes on,” and that “this is a disgrace, there are kids around here.”

Then, Davis shot at them with a compressed-gas-powered BB gun.

Police were quick to arrest the man, who only inflicted minor injuries on a male victim whose name has not been released. According to Eric Skains, executive director of St. Pete Pride, the man was not taken to the hospital and continued enjoying the Pride festival.

“No one even really noticed,” Skains said, assuring the Tampa Bay Times that the incident dampen any spirits. With over 125,000 people in attendance, he didn’t even find out about it until the day’s end.

[Photo: Tampa Bay Times]

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