The Lee County Sheriff’s Office is investigating after a 19-year-old was attacked while leaving a bar named Pelican Larry’s near FGCU in south Fort Myers.
Michael White said he was waiting for an Uber outside the establishment at 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, when a group of strangers in a dark-colored SUV started shouting homophobic slurs at him.
“I think it for sure was a hate crime. I could say just because of the way they were yelling. They had the windows down while they were driving and they were yelling f***** because I’m bisexual, gay and they don’t agree with it,” White said.
White said he ignored the strangers and a few moments later, one of them got out of the car and attacked him.
“He was beating me while I’m down, stepping on me, punching me, slamming my face into the concrete repeatedly,” he said.
Witnesses told detectives the person who did this was another young man wearing a red shirt with blonde shaggy looking hair. White said he woke up in the ICU with a brain bleed and broken nose.
White said he was celebrating his 19th birthday with friends at the establishment located off Ben Hill Griffin Parkway. He said Pelican Larry’s is a restaurant that turns into a bar at night. Many FGCU students hang out there.
White said he had a great time inside the bar that night and didn’t have an altercation with anyone.
“If you, if you have any information about Friday night, you were in the area, you seen anything posted online, anything from social media, please reach out to the Lee County Sheriff’s Office with information,” White said.
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Source: abc-7
