(Above image via OPD’s Facebook)
ORLANDO | The Orlando Police Department (OPD) are looking for the suspect of an alleged LGBTQ hate crime that occurred in Orlando’s Thornton Park neighborhood July 22.
LGBTQ activist and environmentalist Eric Rollings was at local eatery Graffiti Junktion picking up a take-out order when he says an unidentified man approached him and used a homophobic slur.
According to the police report, Rollings was chatting with Brain Knox, a Graffiti Junktion employee, while he waited for his order. Rollings says that the suspect had been asked to leave Graffiti Junktion because of a separate incident inside and that is when he first had an altercation with him.
“It was in the middle of the day,” Rollings says. “I ordered my chicken nachos from Graffiti Junktion and this guy walks out and said ‘You fucking faggot,’ and I thought, ‘Who is this guy talking to?’”
Knox verified to police that the suspect began yelling at Rollings and a verbal argument occurred between Rollings and the suspect. Rollings says that the situation escalated when he told the other man not to use that language in front of him.
According to the police report, the suspect left and as Rollings walked back to his vehicle a red or maroon Chrysler 300, driven by the suspect, passed by him slowly as the suspect began yelling out of the car at Rollings. Rollings says he could not make out what the man was saying. The suspect then threw two frozen bottles at Rollings; one hit him in the chest and the other hit his left forearm. The suspect then drove off.
Knox verified to police that, as Rollings was leaving the restaurant, he saw the Chrysler 300 drive by and then heard something hit the wall.
OPD posted photos of the individual and his vehicle taken from security cameras at the business. The individual was driving a red or maroon Chrysler 300.
Anyone who can identify the individual or the vehicle in the photos are asked to contact Central Florida Crimeline at 1-800-423-8477 or OPD at 321-235-5300.
