Utah teen arrested for punching gay teen in possible hate crime – New York Daily News

August 2, 2022 News Editor

Police in Sandy, Utah, arrested a teenage boy over the weekend after he allegedly punched a gay teen who was hugging his boyfriend in front of his home.

Jocelynn Peacock, the victim’s sister, told local television station KSL-TV that a group of teenage boys drove by the victim’s home Friday night and started yelling homophobic slurs at the couple.

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The victim and his boyfriend “were just hugging each other goodbye and saying goodbye for the night” when the alleged assailants drove by, Peacock said.

They then returned about 45 minutes later and attacked the gay teen.

“I didn’t see the punch, but I heard it, the scream afterward, and that’s why I came running out,” she said.

The victim was taken to the ER for memory loss and extreme headaches, according to his mother.

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Paramedics said that he might have suffered a concussion.

WARNING: GRAPHIC LANGUAGE

🚨🚨 Sandy, UT – A gay young man was hugging his boyfriend in front of his home. The young men in this Infiniti stopped and the one person punched the kid in the face while calling him a “fa**ot.” We need to identify this assailant. Contact Sandy, UT police. ⚠️Language⚠️ pic.twitter.com/801SYBoBUt

— Rainbow Youth Project USA (@RainbowYouthUSA) July 30, 2022

Early on Saturday, the Rainbow Youth Project, an organization that promotes the health, safety and well-being of LGBTQ youth, shared a video of the incident on social media, asking anyone with information that could help identify the assailant to contact Sandy police.

“The young men in this Infiniti stopped and the one person punched the kid in the face while calling him a ‘fa–ot’,” the group wrote, while also sharing a closeup of the alleged attacker.

The suspect was arrested Saturday afternoon on suspicion of misdemeanor assault with a hate crime enhancement, which makes the crime a class A misdemeanor, which could include jail time.

🚨🚨UPDATE: Thank you sooooo much to everyone! The young man who assaulted the gay teen in Sandy, UT has been arrested. We stand strong against hate and violence but couldn’t do it without our allies around the country! pic.twitter.com/YremDkL5bP

— Rainbow Youth Project USA (@RainbowYouthUSA) July 31, 2022

“This actually fits in as a hate crime. When you’re targeting someone’s sexual preference, their religion, the color of their skin or ethnic background, those all can be considered a hate crime,” Sgt. Greg Moffitt with the Sandy Police Department told KSL-TV.

“We are heartbroken about this,” Moffitt told KSTU-TV, adding that the fact that anybody can be targeted because of “who they are is very disheartening, and we want it to be well known that in Sandy we’re not going to tolerate it.”