Gay off-duty officer assaulted in Austin

A weekend assault of an off-duty officer in the downtown warehouse district of Austin is being described by police as an apparent gay bashing. Dewayne Friar, 38, said Tuesday he doesn't remember much about the attack, which left him unconscious with broken teeth and puncture wounds on his lower lip. "They were just--boom!--right there," Friar told the Austin American-Statesman. "It happened so fast." Four men were arrested on charges of aggravated assault and released from the Travis County Jail on $20,000 bail each. Police said they are looking for as many as six additional men who may have been involved in the early-morning attack on Saturday. "We take all kinds of incidents like this seriously and investigate them thoroughly to make sure no important aspects of the case are left out," police spokesman Joe Munoz told the American-Statesman. "That's a terrible thing to have happen to somebody." Friar said he, his partner, and a friend had been at a car show and were headed to get food when the attack occurred. According to an arrest warrant affidavit, Friar was riding in the passenger seat of an Isuzu Rodeo with a gay pride sticker on its license plate. The vehicle, which Friar said belongs to his partner, approached a stop sign at Fourth and Colorado and waited for two pedestrians to cross the street, the affidavit said. The two pedestrians instead blocked traffic and refused to move when the driver honked. Then, the document said, six to eight other men rushed to the Isuzu and started pounding the sides, windows, and hood. Several witnesses said one of the men opened the passenger door, struck Friar in the face, dragged him out of the car, and yelled "faggot." The witnesses said Friar fell to the ground after being hit repeatedly and that other attackers picked him up and pummeled him. Friar was the only one injured.