From a normally sleepy tourist town comes some terrible news: a gay couple say they were attacked by a group of men on the beach and beaten to the point of unconsciousness.
The two 22 and 23 year-old men, Samson Deal and Kevin Petterson, came to Seaside on spring break from nursing school in Washington, according to KOMO news. Late Saturday night, the pair wandered away from a group of friends around a beach campfire and ran into a group of three or four men dressed in black.
"All of the sudden, someone asked if were gay, called us 'fags,' then started punching us," said Deal on KOMO. The two woke up bleeding and with swollen faces. "It's upsetting to know people can be so angry... you don't really know what kind of people are out there until something like this happens."
Samson doesn't have health insurance and estimates his medical bills could top $1,500 - I'm trying to dig up any information about where we could send donations. Seaside Police Chief Bob Gross told me that they have two detectives assigned to investigating the crime (out of their total 20-person police force), but have not turned up any new information yet about who the suspects could be. "We've had some hate crimes before, mostly threats," says Gross, "But I have never dealt with anything this serious." If you have any information call the Seaside police at (503) 738-6311.
