Police in Benton Harbor, Michigan have
arrested a man in connection with a December 12 anti-gay attack.
Twenty-three-year old Calvin Jeff
Wright was arrested without incident on Saturday at a fast food
restaurant, Benton Township Police Chief Vincent Fetke told the South
Bend Tribune.
Wright has yet to be charged, but
investigators believe he punched a man in the face after asking
“What's up?” at a Sunoco gas station at 6AM. The victim, a man
in his 50s, said his assailant yelled anti-gay slurs as he kicked
him. The man reported the incident to the county's GLBT community
center, OutCenter.
Fetke said his department used
surveillance video from the gas station to track down Wright.
A second November attack reported to
OutCenter that occurred in nearby St. Joseph is stoking fears of
increasing anti-gay sentiment in the area.
Benton Harbor sits on the shores of
Lake Michigan, about 50 minutes by car from Kalamazoo. Kalamazoo
received national attention in November when voters decided not to
repeal a city ordinance that outlaws discrimination on the basis of
sexual orientation and gender identity.