After Brutal Group Attack On Same-Sex Couple, Police Offering $5,000 Reward
PATCHOGUE, N.Y. (CBSNewYork) - Police on Long Island are searching for a man accused of assaulting a woman earlier this month in a case now being investigated as a hate crime.
Pictures show the injuries Kimberly Page says she suffered after being attacked back on July 7, reports CBS2's Alice Gainer.
"My knee has a gash in it," she said. "My eye and my face and the back of my head."
Page says she was with her girlfriend near the Patchogue-Medford Library in an alleyway after a night out with friends around 3:30 a.m. when a group of men began taunting them.
"Started saying obscene things to my girlfriend and I," she said. "It originated by him asking her if she wanted a real (expletive) and why is she with this (homophobic slur)."
Page says they tried ignoring the comments but things got heated.
"He specifically said to her 'I'm not going to fight you, I'm going to fight her,' meaning me because I'm a dude," she said.
Page's girlfriend she says was slapped then held down.
"He proceeds to hit me in the face," she said. "From that first punch I fell to the ground and I was unconscious for part of it, but what I know now is he was bashing my head on the ground."
Pictures released by the Suffolk County police show the suspect wanted for the attack on Page.
She says eventually the men ran off.
Page spoke out Wednesday alongside the New York LGBT network president and her parents.
"Honestly, every time she leaves the house I'm a little bit afraid, I'm a little bit afraid because there's a lot of hate in the world," said Marie Page, Kimberly's mother.
They want to prevent this kind of attack from happening again to anyone.
"Seeing her and what was done to her tore my wife and I up," said father Timothy Page. "Yes, I want to find person who did it but I want understanding to come out and people to understand we're all different but we have to live together."
The Suffolk County Police Department's Hate Crime Unit has issued a $5,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.
