UNC Student Severely Burned in Alleged Anti-Gay Hate Crime!

Quinn Matney, a gay student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, told police he was attacked by a man in the early hours of April 4. The man reportedly branded him with an object, burning him severely, while uttering anti-gay slurs, before assaulting Matney. Matney said he was talking to an acquaintance at the time of the attack, but that man has not been located

The Daily Tarheel: As the freshman took a walk on South Campus at about 3 a.m. on April 4, he said he ran into an acquaintance on the Craige Residence Hall footbridge. As the two spoke, a man sitting at a nearby picnic table stood up and grabbed him by the wrist, he said.

“Here’s a taste of hell you f—-ing fag,” Matney remembered the man saying.

The man branded Matney, who is gay, on the left wrist with an unidentified object, causing third- and fourth-degree burns that damaged three nerves and a tendon, leaving the freshman with no feeling in his thumb and limited mobility in his index finger, he said. Matney said he tried to pull away — but the man didn’t let go until he received a hard punch to the face.

Matney said he then walked away quickly, trying to distance himself from the man and his two friends, who both appeared drunk.