An 18-year-old has been arrested and charged with aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury in connection with the beating of a gay North Texas man on Labour Day, KENS 5 reports.
According to the report, Arron Keahey, 24, says he met the suspect on the MeetMe social networking app, then headed to his house, thinking he was meeting someone either gay or bisexual.
Keahey, who alleges he was ambushed once he arrived at the house, required plastic surgery because of broken facial bones he sustained. The report says he also suffered nerve damage and had teeth knocked out.
KENS 5 quoted Keahey as saying that the teen was “getting all frustrated and talking all angrily,” but he doesn’t remember anything after that.
Police, who are looking into the incident as a possible hate crime, say they received a 911 call from 18-year-old Brice Johnson, who reportedly told police that he found Keahey in the trunk of a car outside his house and that he drove Keahey to get medical help.
Johnson was later arrested and charged.
Lieutenant Curtis Stone says that in his 10 years in the district, the incident is the first “possible hate crime” he’s investigated.
Keahey is convinced that it is a hate crime, the report says. “Why would they have you under the belief that they’re gay or bisexual or whatever they say you are, and have them show up and do what they did?” he said.
He added, “Just don’t meet anybody online. Don’t trust them.”
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