Calgary police are treating a late night attack on a teenager as a possible hate crime.
The attack happened Thursday evening in the southeast community of New Brighton.
“I have a black eye, a split lip, the inside of my cheek is cut, a cut on my forehead, and my eye is so swollen I can barely open,” says the victim.
CTV Calgary has agreed to withhold the identity of the victim at the request of her family, who are concerned about retribution.
The 17-year-old lesbian was jumped late Thursday night, shortly after getting off a transit bus near her home.
The victim says a group of four teenagers attacked her, punching and kicking her several times, while using homophobic slurs.
She says one of the attackers recorded the beating on his phone.
“(I’m) pretty shaken up, it's hard not to be scared,” says the victim. “This is my neighborhood and I’ve always felt safe in it and now I don't.”
“I've had people throw things at me and play ‘pick on the lesbian on the bus’, and put gum in my hair but nobody has physically assaulted me until now.”
Members of the Calgary Police Service spoke with the victim Thursday night and again Friday morning, and the CPS Hate Crimes Unit are investigating the attack.
Officers are uncertain if the victim in the attack was targeted because of her sexuality or if it was a random attack.
The victim says she's never hidden her sexuality and she acts as a mentor to other gay teens at her school. She adds that although her attackers used gay slurs, the teens may have used the hate terms no matter who they were attacking and she may have just been in the wrong place at the wrong time.
Anyone with information about the attack is asked to contact police or Crime Stoppers.
With files from Chris Epp
