Gay man beaten by bouncers and left with broken leg in harrowing attack caught on camera
Video shared online shows Norman Reggi Houston-Pickett being beaten by security at Hamburger Mary’s in Houston, Texas. (Facebook/Google Maps)
A gay man in Texas has been left with a broken leg, bruising and an injured throat after an assault by security guards at a drag nightclub.
The incident happened at Hamburger Mary’s, in Houston, on Saturday (4 March).
Video from the scene shows the man, Norman Reggi Houston-Pickett, being held in a chokehold by one security guard while another punches him repeatedly.
Photos posted on social media by Houston-Pickett show him with a bloodied, swollen lip, as well as bruising around his left eye.
“This is what happens when you take a franchise restaurant and turn it to a nite [sic] club… after hours, then hire homophobic security officers,” he wrote on Facebook after the assault.
“You get jumped for no reason by the people supposedly hired to protect you.”
Wedding planner Houston-Pickett told Fox 26 Houston that the altercation started when he and his friends tried to leave the club but security told them they had to wait.
He jokingly picked up a bottle of alcohol by the bar and said he needed a drink while waiting, but never actually took a drink, then put it down, he told the news outlet.
It was “probably not even a few minutes later” that he was hit by the security guard, Houston-Pickett said.
He added that he was not aggressive towards the security guards and all he remembered was one of them saying: “You said something to my sister?”
Overly aggressive security at LGBTQ events are becoming a pattern, he claimed.
His lawyer, Carl A. Moore, said there was no excuse for such brutality and planned to work with the police to ensure that criminal and civil charges are filed.
Moore said he had not heard from Hamburger Mary’s despite repeated contact.
PinkNews has approached the venue for comment, but it has yet to respond.
The event invited people to “Party With The Divas”, with five drag queens taking part, and the venue advertises itself as “Houston’s Number 1 Drag Restaurant and Night Club”.
