Source: WSVN TV and South Florida Sun Sentinel
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. -- Police are searching for a man driven by hate, who beat a gay man and threatened him and his partner, after they finished a meal at an outdoor restaurant.

Melbourne Brunner, 37, was eating with his partner at the Floridian restaurant, at 1410 E. Las Olas Blvd., around 3 a.m. when a man walked by their table and started shouting at the two men, said Sgt. Frank Sousa, spokesman for the Fort Lauderdale Police Department. Sousa said the man continued to verbally abuse the two men and made a violent motion with his hands, claiming, "this is how I break (gay people's) necks."

Brunner said he received the injuries from the stranger who walked by their table and targeted him for no other reason besides the fact that he is a gay man. Brunner said they tried to be cordial with the stranger when they first made eye contact. "He looked down at us, and my partner said, 'Good morning,' and that was it."

Brunner recalled, moments later, the man returned visibly upset. "He just started with this barrage, of, 'Are you looking at me, you faggot? You know what I do to faggots? I break their necks!'"

After the verbal encounter, his partner and friend decided to ask for their check. They got up, left the restaurant and headed down the sidewalk to their car. That's when the attacker followed them and made his move. "As I was almost into the car, the guy had made it down the sidewalk and had reached inside and grabbed the edge of the door," explained Brunner. The verbal attack turned physical when Brunner stood up. "That's when he hit me, and I landed face-down on the concrete."

"I can barely see out of my right eye at this point, I got scrapes..." said Brunner.

Mitchell Mart, the victim's partner, went to render aid to Brunner and noticed his injuries. "I came down the street to pick him up and put him in the car and saw he was badly injured," Mart said. "His forehead immediately swelled up, his eye closed, he was bleeding."

Mart tried to get the attacker's license tag number from his pickup truck, but the assailant went out of his way to keep it hidden. "He took off his shirt, covered his license plate, put down his tailgate," he said.

Brunner said the attacker then threatened them. "'I'll kill you before you get my tag number, you faggot!' and jumped in his car, rolled down the window and was screaming, 'That's right, run, faggots, run.'"

Despite the attacker's attempts to keep his identity hidden, the victims did give a detailed description to police.

The owner of the restaurant said he was outraged by the attack and promised to assist the police and the victims however he can to get this man off the streets.

Police received the call about 3:20 a.m. Saturday, Sousa said, but by the time an officer got to the scene, everyone had left. He said an officer also missed Brunner, who had minor injuries, at the hospital. Brunner reported the crime Monday, Sousa said.

Mart's eyes well up with tears, as he relives the traumatizing experience. "This has taken a really nice, beautiful and peaceful town that we have and turned it into a nightmare, and we can't go out and have a good time," he said as he chocked back his tears.

Brunner thinks this man poses a real danger to society. "This guy is a psychopath," he said. "This guy has to be taken off the streets."

Full article: WSVN-TV - Local News - Police search for man who attacked gay couple
Gay man attacked outside popular Lauderdale eatery | Sun Sentinel