Gay Man Beaten Unconscious by Nightclub Bouncers

metroweekly.com:

KRIV that he and some friends were attending an LGBTQ-themed event featuring drag performances on the night in question.Houston-Pickett claims he and his friends were told they’d have to wait before leaving the club.While in that holding pattern, he grabbed a bottle of alcohol from the bar and jokingly said he needed a drink for the wait.

He then put the bottle down and never took a drink from it.A short while later, however, a large, well-built man who appeared to be working security at the bar approached him.“I saw an African American male…really buff with long hair coming at me with two other guys,” Houston-Pickett told KRIV. “The only thing I remember, the words he said were ‘you said something to my sister?’, then he hit me and that’s all I remember.”Houston-Pickett maintains he was not aggressive or confrontational with the bouncers, and did nothing to provoke them. “[T]hey came charging with an agenda,” he said.Video of the altercation that later went viral on social media shows a security guard holding Houston-Pickett in a chokehold from behind, while another guard knocks him unconscious with a single blow.That guard then punches Houston-Pickett at least 10 more times.

The DJ can be heard at the end of the video asking what is happening and urging the security guards to “chill.”Houston-Pickett suffered black and bloodied eyes, a concussion, and a broken leg following the incident.“This is what happens when you take a franchise restaurant and turn it to a nite club and after hours and then hire homophobic security officers,” Houston-Pickett wrote in a Facebook post after being treated for his injuries. “You get jumped for no reason by the people supposedly hired to protect you.”He added that similar incidents are.