San Diego’s Hillcrest gayborhood is typically filled with locals and tourists enjoying the laidback Southern Californian vibes, frequenting one of the gay bars and clubs or dining at one of the area’s numerous restaurants. But on Tuesday night one of those restaurants became a chaotic scene of terror when a man fired a “hail of gunfire” through the windows and into the dining area.
Miraculously, nobody was injured in the attack, which shattered the windows of The Asian Bistro on University Avenue.
The shooter, who was wearing a trench coat, was later identified in the Union Tribune as 29-year-old Stefano Markell Parker.
Police are now investigating the violence as a potential hate crime — detectives uncovered at least one homophobic comment written on Parker’s Facebook page.
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On Jan. 31, Parker wrote, “Who told all these gayfers it was safe to come outside…..?”
Sure sounds like a hate crime to us.
“We pride ourselves on being a very diverse city that celebrates unique culture, and that is never going to change,” San Diego mayor Kevin Faulconer said. “We will stand together to denounce violence, and we will stand together to support our brothers and sisters in the LGBTQ community.”
Parker was detained four blocks from the scene of the crime, and the gun and gun magazines were collected nearby.
“It’s quite a blessing when… that hail of gunfire that went out, there was nobody hit,” San Diego police Lt. Andra Brown told San Diego News Video. “There were several patrons inside the business, and employees, and nobody was struck.”
Earlier on the day of the shooting, Parker posted a long and hard-to-follow Facebook post about his life and its struggles.
“For me, I feel like my childhood interpretation of freedom has been much trampled and a bit destroyed,” he wrote. “So my process to grasp a personal understanding of freedom, to regain freedom, may be of a somewhat of a different approach then the approaches used by others.”
“Don’t get this post misunderstood,” the post concluded.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Looking like this smcubag won’t be wondering about “regaining freedom” AND his butt virginity. ..
LuckyCelt777
One could take the last post and interpret it to mean he falls into the category of strong gun rights and the second amendment. That he buys into the theory “ they’re gonna take your guns.” It’s the use of the word trampled, which is the common thought of removing or changing the second amendment is trampling the entire constitution. So, he grasped his “personal understanding of freedom,” his gun and used it to regain his freedom. As we’ve heard that to protect the second amendment, gun owners would rise up with gun in hand, taking a different approach than through legislation but assert their gun rights by force. Just a thought.
msfrost
Sorry. No!
iminheatlikeacat
Didn’t read the article but was just wondering whether Queerty was planning to run a story on the updated Jessie Smollet ‘attack’ that many of us, myself included, questioned its plausibility and now other news outlets are questioning it too??
jkthsnk
I live in Banker’s Hill. I’ve been called a fa**ot, been bashed and had things thrown at me more than all other places I’ve lived, combined.
fur_hunter
And who generates most of the HATE in the world? RELIGIONS! Those preaching from pulpits around the world are the ones propagating the HATE! Just listen to Tony Perkins, Robert Jeffress, Franklin Graham, Jerry Falwell, Jr., Pat Robertson. Yeah. Listen to the Westboro Baptist Church group. HATE is learned. You are NOT born with it. And I have just told you from where people learn it.
edwardnvirginia
WHERE does HATE come from? FROM selfishness, originally: that ‘what I want is more important than what you want’. And that behavior is found in infants who cry forever until they are feed. It is, for infants, a survival ‘system’ that the infant’s LIFE will survive. Children and vulnerable adults also met CRY OUT if their life is in jeopardy. Their ‘cry’ may be shout and scream on the street, to get a gun, to lie and steal for food, to sell sex for a place to stay, etc. But, also from childhood through adulthood we may believe that ‘what we want’ is about ‘survival’ OF OUR EGO – self-image, dreams of self, delusions of self. Smollett has DELUSIONS of his SELF-IMPORTANCE, CELEBRITY, and WHAT HE WANTS HE WANTS MORE. So he as lied, connived, and made up his ‘hate crime’ that will, no doubt, PLAGUE lgbtq who are TRULY IN NEED, UNDER THREAT. LGBTQ should publicly denounce Smollett and burn – in effigy – everything related to his SELF IMPORTANT CELEBRITY. When RICH FAMOUS gay people like Smollett are such lying whores of SELF-IMPORTANCE shouldn’t we expect poor, neglected/abandoned, lonely/unseen lgbtq to fall into despair and angry and act out?
IAMBROWN
Glad no one was hurt. Still baffled by the actions caused by haters. How does one get to the point where they HATE an entire group of humans. Pure cray.