The teen told
police officials in Jamaica he had connected with a man on the app and agreed
to meet him in Flankers, a neighborhood in Montego Bay, St. James.
But when he
arrived, three men ambushed him taking his phone and wallet, according to local
newspaper The Sunday Gleaner.
Keeping the
victim captive, the assailants attempted to use his bank card at an ATM to
withdraw money. But they were unsuccessful.
A police
officer told The Gleaner the men then forced the teen to
transfer money into an account.
The incident
then took a horribly violent turn as the men, who were reportedly drinking,
poured alcohol on the young man and partially severed his penis before setting
him on fire.
Left to die,
the victim somehow made his way to a security checkpoint in the neighborhood at
which point he was taken to the hospital where he remains in critical
condition.
The Gleaner reports that this kind of calculated attack using gay dating apps
isn’t new to Jamaica.
In January
2020, Allie Jackson, 43, was killed during a similar dating app meet-up. His
body was found in a shallow grave a week after he’d gone missing.
Just last week
in Dallas, Daniel Jenkins, 22, was sentenced to 23 years in prison for his part in a
conspiracy to target gay men using Grindr.
Jenkins and
three other men lured men to an apartment complex where they would force their
victims to withdraw cash from a nearby ATM at gun point. Among the nine
victims, some were physically assaulted and one had his car stolen.
LGBTQ
Jamaicans have been vulnerable to sexual and physical violence for years
according to reports from the Human Rights Watch.
In 2014, the
group released a report documenting how queer people in Jamaica are often
“taunted, threatened, fired from their jobs, thrown out of their homes, or
worse: beaten, stoned, raped, or killed.”
Making matters
worse, the government still has so-called “buggery laws” on the books which
outlaws all male homosexual conduct.
SOURCE: INSTINCT MAG
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