The small town of Springtown, Texas experienced its first possible hate crime after a same-sex casual encounter turned unexpectedly violent.
Aaron Keahy, 24, met Brice Johnson, 18, through the social networking app, MeetMe, and — thinking that Johnson was gay or bisexual — about an hour later Keahy went over to the teen’s house during the early morning on Labor Day. However, Keahy said he was immediately ambushed, leaving him with nerve damage, knocked out teeth and broken bones that required plastic surgery.
“He started getting all frustrated and talking all angrily,” he told San Antonio’s KENS5. “I don’t remember anything after that.”
In an interesting twist, Johnson claims he doesn’t remember anything either, though police say they received a 911 call from the teen. He told them he found Keahy outside of his house in the trunk of a car and drove the victim to get medical help. Police later arrested Johnson, charging him with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury.
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
Police are charging the incident as a possible hate crime, a first for the town of less than 3,000 people. “I’ve been up here altogether 10 years, and this is the first hate crime or possible hate crime that I’ve investigated,” said Springtown police Lt. Curtis Stone. Because neither Johnson nor Keahy remember the attack, Stone doesn’t “have any answers” for Keahy’s injuries.
Johnson had been spending the summer with his friend, Darcel Cummings, whose family often takes in troubled teens. Cummings, however, had never “seen him be violent or upset towards anybody.” As for Keahy, he’s learned a hard and painful lesson: “Just don’t meet anybody online,” he said. “Don’t trust them.”
Snapper59
An additional fact is they both had priors for drug use, which I assume is the reasoning behind “possible” hate crime.
hyhybt
That name’s vaguely familiar. Is he the guy who, a couple years ago, was (supposedly, at least) was kidnapped by his family and forced into an ex-gay camp with no outside communication?
Stache1
“In an interesting twist, Johnson claims he doesn’t remember anything either”
Yeah, that’s just a bit too hard to believe since this all sounds like a set up.
andy_d
The moral is to meet in a public place. Period.
erasure25
Wouldn’t there be some bruising on the attacker’s hands or DNA material left in the victim’s wounds that would tie them to the hate crime? Or is that too law and order-esque?
wiredpup
@Snapper59: And where exactly do you get your “facts”? Nowhere in this article or any other that I’ve seen mentions your “facts”.
ShowMeGuy
@erasure25: You’re forgetting this happened in “hayseed acres”. Roscoe P. Coltrain and Barney Fife probably had to run back to the station and dig out old police books so they could look up procedures on what to do.
ShowMeGuy
@andy_d: They did…….and then “let’s go back to my place”.
SnakeyJ
@erasure25: There is probably no questions that Johnson is the attacker, the question is was Keahy beat up because he was gay, or for some other reason. Just because he’s gay and attacked does not make it automatically a hate crime.