DENVER – Police have arrested a 24-year-old man for investigation on first-degree assault charges who is accused of stabbing two gay men outside a Denver nightclub over the weekend.
A spokesperson with the Denver Police Department told Denver7 it is investigating the possibility that the attack was a biased-motivated crime.
Dylan Payne, 24, faces investigation on first-degree assault charges. The alleged attack happened near the Church nightclub just before 1 a.m. Sunday, according to a probable cause statement for Payne’s arrest and court records.
According to the probable cause statement, the two men were leaving the nightclub when they were confronted by Payne near 10th Ave. and Lincoln in Denver’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
A GoFundMe page set up by one of the alleged victims identifies him as 19-year-old Christopher Huizar and says his boyfriend is 23 years old.
The page says the two were “simply holding hands” when Payne yelled at them, allegedly calling them “f---ing f-----s.” The probable cause statement says Payne was yelling “homophobic slurs” at the men and that he called them “f-----s.”
According to both Huizer and the probable cause statement, Payne then attacked them, stabbing both men with a folding pocket knife and causing them “serious bodily injury,” according to the police statement.
Huizer wrote on the GoFundMe page that he and his boyfriend can’t work and they need help paying hospital bills.
Payne did not have an attorney listed in court records. His first advisement is scheduled for 1:30 p.m. in a Denver courtroom.
