BOSTON (AP) | A Massachusetts man accused of striking another man with a shovel, attacking him with a box cutter and calling him anti-gay slurs has been arrested on charges of assault and committing a hate crime, Boston police said.
Boston police officers responded to reports of an assault around noon on Dec. 3 and found a man bleeding from the head.
The 25-year-old man who was attacked had just left Prentiss Street when Eddie Smith, 58, of Boston, began directing anti-gay slurs at him, according to the police report. Smith hit the man with a shovel and cut him with a box cutter near his eye, police said.
Officers said they found a box cutter and a snow shovel. The injured man told police Smith had directed anti-gay slurs at him in the past.
The injured man was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries.
“It triggers him whenever he sees me because I live my life openly and he can’t do the same for whatever reason,” the injured man said to WHDH TV 7 News in Boston. “That like drives him nuts.”
58 year old Eddie Smith facing hate crime charges after he hit a gay man with a snow shovel and slashed him with a box cutter outside Boston Police HQ. The victim says “It triggers him whenever he sees me because I live my life openly”. @7News pic.twitter.com/cBrX58NeXw
— Alex DiPrato (@AlexDiPrato) December 5, 2019
Smith will be arraigned on charges of assault and battery with a dangerous weapon, mayhem, and committing a hate crime.
It’s unclear whether Smith has a lawyer to speak on his behalf.
