Hate Crime on the Hill? Gay Bartender Claims Homophobe Beat Him With Baseball Bat

Pictured: Baseball bat to the face. Not pictured: Drunk, gay bartender who may have been asking for it.

​SeattleCrime has the story of a gay bartender who claims he was left battered by a homophobe with a baseball bat. But like many tales that take place late at night after a couple rounds, it's still not clear who's telling the whole truth.

Police showed up on the scene around 3 a.m., where they found a man who identified himself as a bartender from Capitol Hill's Neighbours.

The victim said he was walking with a friend when two men sitting in a silver Mercedes started yelling gay epithets. The bartender says he confronted the men, one of whom got out wielding a baseball bat, hit him over the head and then left.

But an eyewitness says there's a little more to it than a simple assault-and-battery.

A QFC security guard who watched the attack claims the victim slammed his hands on the trunk of the Mercedes. Rather than attacking him outright, the guard claims the driver was dared by the drunk bartender to hit him.

When the victim lunged at the man he was struck in the head with the bat, says the guard. Then hit once more when the drunk bartender -- who repeatedly told responding medics he was a "cowboy" -- lunged again.

When police confronted the bartender with the guard's version of events, he eventually admitted that a friend had taken him away from the scene. Police then asked the bartender if he'd had too much to drink."No, I haven't had too much to drink...I'm a bartender," the man told police.

"When I told him that the comment doesn't mean much...he looked confused and then said "Blow me!," Officer Kathryn Andre wrote in her report. "I believed he meant a breathilyzer to show his level of intoxication."

Police are investigating the incident as an anti-gay assault. They're also said to be very disappointed, yet not surprised, that another hired badge stood and watched while someone got their ass beat.