52 Year Old Shreveport Louisiana Resident Recovering After Alleged Hate Crime Attack

Police in Shreveport, Louisiana have arrested William Payne and charged him with attempted second-degree murder and the commission of a hate crime in connection to a disturbing attack inside a nightclub caught on security surveillance, reports KSLA. 52 year old John Skaggs is recovering after being treated at an area hospital after Payne broke a pool cue over Skaggs’ face, swinging the stick like “a baseball bat,” according Tim Huck, the manager and owner of the Sandbar. Huck adds that “It was totally one hundred-percent a hate crime” for Skaggs’ sexual orientation. Huck believes that the video confirms that, saying “At no point in time had he (Skaggs) talked to that man that attacked, bumped him, After watching the video and from witnesses they hadn’t even made any form of eye contact or anything.” Skaggs in now awaiting surgery to be scheduled and says he does remember being attacked, but says “It is a hate crime. I didn’t do anything, it turns out he told people he knew I was gay, and he was going to beat me up.”