Four men suspected of brutally
attacking a gay couple following Miami Beach's annual LGBT Pride
parade surrendered to police on Tuesday.
According to the Miami Herald,
the men – Juan C. Lopez, 21; Luis M. Alonso Piovet, 20; Adonis
Diaz, 21; and Pablo Reinaldo Romo-Figueroa, 21 – surrendered to the
Miami Beach police department through an attorney and will likely
face felony charges.
Rene Chalarca and Dmitry Logunov, both
32, were attacked on Sunday as they walked home from the parade.
“We were walking and holding hands
and needed to use the bathroom,” Logunov told the South
Florida Gay News.
Logunov was called a “faggot” in
Spanish and beaten unconscious as he walked out of the public
bathroom. When Chalarca intervened, three men attacked him. The
four men also attacked a good Samaritan, identified as Helmut Muller,
who came to the couple's aid.
The couple criticized the police's
response. They said the officers refused to chase the men, who were
still visible in the distance. And a female officer told Logunov to
“stop the drama” and “shut the fuck up.”
Paramedics who treated the couple at
the scene told them to go home. Later, they decided to go to the
hospital on their own and discovered that Chalarca had a broken tear
duct and might need surgery.
The attack was recorded on video. The
Miami
Herald reported that the men have been charged with
aggravated battery and that it is up to the state attorney's office
to decide whether to classify the attack as a hate crime.