Hate crimes unit investigating after same-sex couple assaulted
Less than a week before the start of Calgary’s Pride celebrations, police are investigating whether a downtown assault on the weekend was a hate crime.
Police said they were called to the intersection 12th Avenue and 4th Street S.W. just before 12:30 a.m. Sunday when an altercation between two members of the city ’s LGBTQ community and a group of people turned violent.
The female couple was assaulted and told police they were attacked for being gay.
Police confirmed the hate crimes unit has been called in to investigate the assault.
Police have not yet determined the motivation for the assault but Craig Collins, hate crimes co-ordinator with the service, confirmed the victims told police the incident was “triggered because of their sexuality.”
Collins said police take any allegation of bias against an identifiable group seriously, adding the hate crimes unit has access to additional support resources for victims through the police diversity unit.
“Once our victim or, in many of the cases, our responding officers identify a potential hate bias, our report system takes that into effect,” he said.
The hate crimes unit is also investigating after racially charged graffiti was found at a construction site late last month.
Racial slurs and a swastika were discovered on the road and a sound barrier wall located at Southland Drive and Oakfield Drive S.W. on July 31.
Police believe the tags were left sometime between 7 p.m. on July 30 and 7 a.m. on July 31.
The graffiti was removed by the city as soon as it was discovered and Craig Collins, hate crimes coordinator with the police, said the final determination on whether the tagging is considered a hate crime will be made after suspects are located and interviewed.
“There’s a whole host of things that indicate to us that there’s a hate bias angle here, and that’s what we’re investigating,” he said of the graffiti investigation.
Anyone with information in either case should contact the Calgary Police Service hate crime unit via email at hatecrime@calgarypolice.ca.
You can also call the police nonemergency line at 403-266-1234 or contact Crime Stoppers anonymously at 403-262-8477.
Collins urged members of the public not to post the names of the alleged attackers on social media as no charges have been laid and police are still investigating.