Corpus Christi, TX - Beating Victim Calls Assault a Hate Crime
A man found naked and severely beaten near Staples and Morgan last week is calling the attack a hate crime. Twenty-four-year-old Keire Gartica says two men beat him and sexually assaulted him for hours while shouting racial and homophobic slurs.
Gartica says he went to a house on Elizabeth Street friday night to pay off a $5 debt, although he didn't reveal what the money was for. Then, he says the men ordered him to clean the house while they beat him with a frying pan, a gun, and other objects. He says they stripped him naked and sexually assaulted him, all the while shouting racial and homophobic slurs at the man who admits he is gay.
"It was a big joke to them and I could not get out! And every time I tried to move, they pistol whipped me."
After hours of abuse, Gartica says he escaped through a window. A witness who saw him naked and bloody called police and Gartica was taken to the hospital. The suspects, two hispanic men in their 20's or 30's, haven't been found.