Ohio man faces charges after urinating on LGBTQ+ Pride flag in porch while shouting ‘f**k the gays’
An Ohio man is facing misdemeanour charges after he urinated on a home’s LGBTQ+ Pride flag and shouted homophobic abuse. He later returned to the residence to apologise. (YouTube/WBNS 10TV)
An Ohio student is facing charges after he was allegedly caught on camera urinating on an LGBTQ+ Pride flag outside a home.
Columbus City attorney Zach Klein said Trey Samuel Fetzer, 20, has been charged with ethnic intimidation, criminal mischief, criminal trespass and disorderly conduct.
“Vandalising property and making homophobic remarks [to] intimidate members of the LGBTQ+ community will not be tolerated in our city,” Klein was quoted as saying by The Columbus Dispatch.
“Columbus is diverse and tolerant, and we celebrate our LGBTQ+ community. Hate has no home here, and as long as I’m city attorney, we will continue to aggressively prosecute hate and bias crimes.”
Possible penalties for the misdemeanour charges include a fine, a prison sentence or probation, WCMH reported.
According to court documents, Fetzer was allegedly caught on surveillance footage walking on to the porch of a home in the Weiland Park neighbourhood, near the Ohio State University campus, where he is a student, on the evening of 8 February, before exposing himself and urinating on the LGBTQ+ Pride flag.
He is then said to have banged on the house’s door and shouted “f**k the gays” repeatedly while holding up his middle finger. A second man was reportedly recording Fetzer on a phone.
Columbus police launched an investigation into the incident after the home’s residents posted the surveillance video online. It’s believed that the man later went back to the house to apologise, on 13 February.
Zoe, who lives at the home, told WBNS that she shared the video to set an example for her two children, who are both trans. “I’ve got a 12 year old and a 14 year old, and we’ve had the gamut of school experiences… This isn’t something that they should expect as normalised in their life,” she said.
Another resident, Sarah, said she feared this “might just be the start of things and it could get worse”.
