Video Courtesy of KSL.com
Summary: Twenty-year-old Dane Hall, an openly-gay man, was partying at the Club Sound on 579 W. 200 South in downtown Salt Lake on Friday August 26th, 2011. Friday night is the club's "gay-themed night"; the club, which already has heavy security including many video cameras and security guards both inside and outside the building, becomes even tighter. Hall said he left Club Sound late on Friday and crossed the street to the corner of 600 West and 200 South when four men approached him and began yelling gay slurs. He attempted to ignore them and walk away, but he was punched in the back of the head and knocked to the ground, after which one of the assailants grabbed his shirt and started punching him in the face. After Hall fell to the ground again, the attacker grabbed him and "curb-checked" him. Curb-checking, popularized in the movie American History X, means placing the man's open mouth over the street curb and stomping on the back his head. In the case of Dane Hall, it resulted in six teeth being knocked out, a shattered cheekbone, a jaw broken in three places, and a piece of his jawbone jammed into his brain. Two other assailants then kicked him repeatedly in the stomach. The attackers called him a "fag", took his identification and $40, and departed; they were described by Hall as being light-skinned and wearing red. The attack lasted less than a minute.
Hall managed to get up after the attack, and walked toward a police officer and a medical crew about a half-block away. Police were busy working another issue and couldn't take a report from him. Hall persuaded the medics not to call an ambulance because he thought he couldn't afford a doctor; instead, two of his friends drove him to LDS Hospital, where he was given a shot and woke up the next morning at the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray. At that time, he filed a police report.
Aftermath: Dane Hall is offering a $10,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the perpetrators. He estimates that medical expenses could top $40,000, which he'll have to pay unless the attackers are found because he has no insurance. Accounts in his name have already been set up at Zion's Bank and Wells Fargo; all one has to do is to visit any branch and tell an employee you want to contribute to the Dane Hall Fund. Anyone with information about the assailants or any possible leads is asked to call the Salt Lake Police Department at 801-799-3000.
