A West Hollywood photographer walking with a group of friends that included RuPaul’s Drag Race contestants Trinity Taylor and Valentina was assaulted in the early morning hours today after leaving a bar on Santa Monica Boulevard in West Hollywood’s Boystown nightlife district.
Jason King described the incident on his Facebook page and praised the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station and Deputy Daniel Martinez for their response to the incident.
King said that he and his friends were walking home from the bar when a man they didn’t know joined them. “After a certain amount of time this became uncomfortable and he was asked very politely by Valentina to please not follow us,” King said. “He said his car was parked in the same direction we were going, so he was asked again politely to go ahead of us and we would wait. He asked us to go ahead of him instead, and it went back and forth like that a couple of times until finally Valentina said we would go the other way, and the guy then punched him. I went to go get the guy off of Valentina and he punched me in the nose and broke it. I spent 9 hours in the ER.”
The watch sergeant at the West Hollywood Sheriff’s Station said the incident occurred somewhere between 2 and 2:30 a.m. and that the alleged assailant, whose name hasn’t been released, was arrested on a charge of aggravated battery.
King praised the response of the Sheriff’s deputies in his Facebook post.
“ … I know there is a lot of people out there that are against our law enforcement right now and I can understand why they would feel the way they do,” King said. “I want you all to know though that not every law enforcement person is bad. Last night we had about six officers, all which I feel I could confidently say were straight, come to our rescue.
“Each and every one of them were not only helpful but friendly and didn’t care that we were gay, didn’t care what we looked like or what color our skin was. They only cared about our safety and capturing the guy that did that, which they did.
“So thank you West Hollywood Sheriff department for all of your help and professionalism. Thank you especially to officer Martinez who not only helped us at the scene but called later to check up on us, which he did not have to do.
“Moral of the story, be responsible and be safe!!! You never know what could literally happen in a matter of seconds.”
Well, I for one am grateful to have the Sherifs Department around and looking out for us. The past has seen some ugly incidents in this city perpetrated by people who were only caught because of the hard work the Sherifs do. We certainly need citizen oversight of the Police but we can and should thank them for the many times, like this incident, where they acted with professionalism and efficiency…
It sickens me that these assaults still occur, but I do praise the quick response of our Sheriff’s dept. For all the past challenges our community has had with communications to and from the dept., I’m pleased to hear that they handled this matter with due haste. All the more reason for the City to move forward, as we are, with public safety cameras on the streets. I’m for the privacy of citizens, but cameras are everywhere now, inside: CVS, Pavilions, banks, libraries, government buildings, etc. Most assaults, however, happen on the streets, not inside these places. We need to… Read more »
This was a horrible experience for Jason and his friends. Jason-thank you for acknowledging the Sheriffs during an emotional and painful time.
WEHOVILLE- any reason you do not provide the address of the crime and only the location of the bar? You have missed the opportunity to inform the public.
The watch sergeant was unable to provide that info
This is the kind of professionalism and humanity that law enforcement and other emergency responders provide the public thousands of times a day. But we rarely hear the praise and the appreciation that Mr King so graciously shared with us.
I hope everyone’s recovery from this brutal attack is swift, as well as the consequences to the assailant.