The kickball t-shirt bloodied in the attack. (Photo courtesy of Robbie Barletta)

Two gay men were physically attacked on U Street near 16 Street NW in an incident that D.C. police are investigating as a potential hate crime, according to a police report taken at the scene of the crime.

The incident occurred on September 16 around 9:30 p.m., and involved five suspects who emerged from a car to assault two men walking in the 1500 block of U Street NW. It was first reported by the Washington Blade.

Robbie Barletta and William Southern first identified themselves as the victims in social media posts shortly after the incident. They were walking home from the Dupont neighborhood after playing a game in the Stonewall Kickball LGBT sports league, and were wearing their league t-shirts during the attack.

Barletta describes the events that ensued as “a blur, because it just happened so quickly. It could have been anywhere from a couple seconds to a couple minutes. By the time I was able to actually process what happened, it was already over.”

According to the police report, a vehicle nearly hit Barletta and Southern. “After the near miss, [one of the victims] hit the vehicle with his open hands yelling at the driver, who drove away,” the report says.

Then, a second vehicle turned onto New Hampshire Avenue NW with passengers who “began yelling derogatory obscenities” before stopping the car and assaulting the victims.

“A car drove by yelling at us, all we remember are homophobic slurs and whatnot,” Barletta tells DCist. “The next thing we know, there were four guys and a girl coming for us.” Police told the Blade that they are investigating whether some of the assailants were also in the first car.

“My friend was attacked unconscious and I tried to help him,” says Barletta. “I either got hit in the head or I hit the ground—I’m not sure what happened.” He says he is still recovering from a concussion he got that evening, and a black eye.

Witnesses called 911, and D.C. police and D.C. Fire and EMS arrived on the scene, per the report. Witnesses also provided a description of the vehicle.

Southern writes in an Instagram post that he was “sent to the ER where I received stitches to pull my lip back together.” According to the police report, he was bleeding excessively from his face.

Tim Jucovy, the Stonewall Kickball league’s commissioner, wrote in a Facebook post that the league is “offering Robbie and Will our full support and working with them in a variety of ways,” including having members of the D.C. police LGBT Liaison made available to teams, holding an interactive discussion to discuss bias-related crime on October 15, forming a task force, and offering a Lyft sponsorship that will offer players discounted rides after games.

Barletta says that he’s been heartened by the response from the league. “The fact that the community outreach has been strong definitely feels good,” he says. He adds that, since the attack, other people have approached him and said they’ve been harassed or attacked “on a smaller scale.”

D.C. tracks hate crimes according to the type of bias. In 2017, D.C. had a total of 179 reported hate crimes, including 32 motivated by sexual orientation bias. As of the end of August 2018, D.C. had 127 hate crimes, with 37 of those motivated by sexual orientation bias. That’s more than had been recorded by that time last year—32 crimes motivated by sexual orientation.

Barletta says that detectives have asked him for help in identifying the culprits. As the investigation continues, he is trying to overcome his physical injuries and trauma.

“It’s taken a very long time for me to reach the confidence level that I have, and I’m definitely not going to let this situation ruin that for me,” Barletta says. “I want [the assailants] to know that no matter how hard you try to break us down, you’re only making us stronger.”

This post has been updated with additional information from the police report.