Vancouver Gay Couple Gets Attacked By Thugs
Thugs beat, punch, bite Vancouver gay couple
Urinating, homophobic pair attack men returning home from concert
Two middle-aged Vancouver men who live near GM Place were victims of an apparent gay-bashing Saturday.
Two thugs viciously assaulted David Holtzman and his partner, Peter Regier, as they tried to enter their townhouse on Keefer Street at around 10:45 p.m.
“We were out at a concert and came home and found two guys on our steps peeing against the wall,” Holtzman told The Province.
“I said, ‘Do you really have to pee there?’”
The man replied with extremely vulgar, anti-gay invective, he said.
Holtzman said he and Regier were attacked without provocation. He received about 50 punches to his head and body and was twice bitten by his attacker.
He still had blurry vision in one eye Sunday, but an eye doctor has told him he likely will recover.
Both Holtzman and Regier suffered concussions, with Regier beaten so viciously he was taken to hospital, where surgical staples were put in his head to close a wound.
“We were not fighting,” insisted Holtzman. “We were not looking for a fight at all.
“I’m over 50, I’m not that big. I’m not a fighter. I would say they were drunk and looking for a fight.”
Holtzman said he doesn’t know whether the thugs had come from an Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) event that took place several blocks away.
“It’s homophobia as much as anything — the slurs,” he said, adding the attack “was brutal.”
“I was just minding my own business, suggesting someone not treat our front door as a toilet, and got attacked,” said Holtzman.
“He didn’t need to bite me. He didn’t need to punch me 50 times. I was curled up in a fetal position.”
The attack ended only when a neighbour showed up and scared the two cowards away, said Holtzman. “The police arrived very quickly.”
Vancouver police Const. Jana McGuinness told The Province that officers were busy in the Granville entertainment district after UFC 115.
“There does not appear to be any connection [between the double beating and] any events held in downtown Vancouver [Saturday] night ... however, investigators will be examining the timeline of events leading up to the incident,” she said.
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