PostGlobe reporting gay bashing on Capitol Hill -- Also, South Park murder update

Two stories of recent violence against homosexuals here in the city. In one on the streets of Capitol Hill, the victims claim they were targeted because they are gay. In the other, authorities have determined there was 'no evidence of a bias crime.'

The Seattle PostGlobe is reporting a gay bashing happened last Friday night on Capitol Hill:

Robert Harkins, who was the face of the gay rights organization Hands Off Washington in the 1990s, knows that gay-bashing occurs.

He wasn’t expecting it Friday night, though. Not as he walked with a friend Friday night. Not on Capitol Hill – the traditional center of gay life in Seattle.

But at about 11 p.m., Harkins, who is now the state’s deputy superintendent in the Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, said he watched his friend get shoved to the ground on Pike Street and three men kick his friend in the face while yelling anti-gay and anti-Hispanic slurs.

The incident was not reported to police.

Meanwhile, the King County Prosecutor is pursuing charges against the man accused in the attack on a lesbian couple in South Park that could bring the death penalty. Isaiah Kalebu, 23, was charged with one count of aggravated murder and one count of first-degree rape. 39-year-old Teresa Butz died in the attack. Prosecutor Dan Satterberg said there is no evidence of a bias crime or malicious harassment.