Dallas Voice, a Dallas media outlet for the DFW-area LGBT community, has reported that police in Dallas police are seeking a suspect who attacked a gay Seagoville woman in February. Sondra Scarber was with her partner, Hillary Causey, and their child when she was attacked after defending her four-year old son when he was bullied on a Mesquite playground.

From Dallas Voice:

A 10-year-old began pushing their son around so Scarber told the boy to stop. That’s when the boy’s younger sister went to the car to get their father. Causey said she expected the father to tell his son not to pick on a 4-year-old but as he got closer, she could see his anger. At first, he thought Scarber was a man. When he realized she was woman, he said, “Oh, it’s a bitch. It’s a bitch,” according to Causey. “You’re a woman, but you think you’re a man.”

He called her a dyke and a faggot, holding her up by her necklace and repeatedly hitting her in the face until he knocked her out. “I’m going to beat you like a man,” he said.

As Scarber’s son stood watching, the suspect kicked Scarber in the head and stomped her face while she was lying on the ground – causing a very serious injury to her jaw. A woman accompanying the suspect tried to stop him, to no avail.

The suspect yelled gay epithets while he beat Sondra Scarber after she tried to defend her 4-year-old son from bullying at the hands of the suspect’s children. After knocking Scarber to the ground, the suspect kicked her in the mouth and stomped her face. She would later need surgery on her jaw, which had been knocked an inch-and-a-half out of alignment.

Scarber’s distressed child pleaded “Please don’t kill her.”

When the suspect and his companion left, he took Scarber’s phone, earrings, cap, and attempted to take her shoes. Causey chased the running couple to their car and was able to snatch the phone out of his hand before she called the police.

According to Dallas Voice, the police have been largely reluctant to call the incident a hate crime.

[…] a spokesman for the Mesquite Police Department disputed initial media reports about the attack that suggested authorities were discounting anti-gay bias as a possible motive. The spokesman said police are still looking for a suspect but haven’t ruled out a hate crime.

Mesquite police aren’t ruling out bias, but they still have not reported the incident as a hate crime.

Mesquite police spokesman Lt. Bill Hedgpeth said the department is not discounting bias as a possible motive. “We look at everything and if that’s a motive, that’s a motive,” he said. He called the level of violence in the case shocking and said Mesquite police have placed a priority on finding the person who assaulted Scarber. “But the hate crime designation happens on the prosecution side,” he said. “We take all the information and present it to the DA.” While it’s up to the district attorney’s office whether to prosecute cases as hate crimes, police departments report bias-motivated incidents to the FBI under the federal Hate Crime Statistics Act. Online records show the Mesquite Police Department hasn’t reported a hate crime to the FBI under the act in more than five years. (Dallas Voice)

Mesquite police are determined to find the suspect and make an arrest.

“Someone with this propensity for violence is a danger to everyone in the community,” Hedgpeth said. “This bad guy needs to be arrested so we can prosecute and get him off the street.”

Scarber, after undergoing surgery on February 28, is on a room-temperature liquid diet because hot and cold food hurts the metal in her mouth and it’s impossible to eat anything solid at this point. She will have to endure physical therapy for up to two years. Uninsured, she is receiving assistance from the Victim’s Compensation Fund for her medical expenses. The couple’s child is undergoing counseling and is blaming himself for the incident.”Witnesses” at the crime scene claim that they didn’t see anything.

Cindy Scarber, a relative of Scarber, is raising money to help fund the extensive recovery. You can contact her on Twitter for more information.

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