Northeastern student alleges gay bashing

Daniel D'Orsi, a 22-year-old Northeastern student, was assaulted and robbed in the early morning hours of May 6 outside Fritz bar in the South End. D'Orsi, whose injuries were severe enough to require reconstructive surgery to repair his collapsed cheekbone, said the assailant shouted anti-gay slurs at him during the assault.

Boston Police are currently investigating the incident as a straightforward assault and robbery rather than as a hate crime.

D'Orsi said the incident occurred at about 1:30 a.m. while walking home from the Eagle bar in the South End. As he was walked past Fritz, a gay sports bar, someone approached him from behind and tore his wallet from the back pocket of his pants.

"He came up behind me and grabbed it out of my back pocket, and I turned around, and that's when he called me an f-ing faggot, all the derogatory things you could think of," said D'Orsi.

He said when the attacker grabbed his wallet he knocked D'Orsi to the ground, and D'Orsi smashed the side of his head on the pavement when he fell. He said he blacked out at that point, but based on his injuries he believes the attacker kicked him in the face while he was lying on the ground. The attacker made off with about $140 in cash along with credit and debit cards.

Rob Warner, a bouncer at Fritz, did not witness the assault, but he said he came outside just as the assailant was running up Chandler Street. He said staff from the bar called the police and an ambulance.

"He was pretty badly beaten, actually, had blood running down his mouth and ears," said Warner.

Warner said from his brief look at the assailant he believes the man to have been a black male in his late 30s or early 40s, weighing about 240 pounds and standing at about 6'2". Police asked him to come down to the station a few days after the attack to look through photos in an effort to identify the suspect. Warner said he picked out a few suspects who looked like the assailant.

D'Orsi said he spoke to police on the scene before being taken to Mass General to treat his injuries, and he spoke to a detective from the D-4 station working on the case a few days later. During that second conversation he said he told the detective about the attacker's use of anti-gay slurs.

"When the detective called to follow up, that's what his conversation seemed to be getting at, whether it was a hate crime," said D'Orsi.

According to Boston Police spokesperson Jill McLaughlin police are not currently investigating the incident as a hate crime. She said it has not been referred to the Community Disorders Unit, which typically handles bias-motivated crime investigations. She said there have not yet been any arrests in the case, and the investigation remains ongoing.

A detective from D-4 involved in the case, who declined to give his name to Bay Windows, said police do not believe the mugging was a gay-bashing because the description of the assailant provided by Warner matches that of a man who attempted to mug a woman a block away on Lawrence Street about a week before D'Orsi's assault. In that instance the detective said the woman was able to get inside her apartment, lock the door before the assailant reached her and call the police.