The attack on the freshman only lasted 10 to 15 seconds, but the burn injuries inflicted by the assailant’s weapon on Quinn Matney’s wrist may have left permanent injuries.
“I’ve never even spoken to the person who did this to me,” said Quinn.
Quinn was crossing the Craige footbridge bridge near his UNC dorm on April 4, when he said he was attacked at random by another man.
“Someone ended up reaching over and grabbing my wrist and pressed a scaling hot piece of metal on it. He said here’s a taste of hell you (expletive) fag!’’ Quinn recounted.
Whatever the device was, it left a distinctive figure-eight style burn as the assailant pressed it hard and deep into Quinn’s skin.
“I tried to get away. He didn’t let go,” Quinn said. “He didn’t let go 'til I punched him full in the face.”
Within hours, the infection from the wound spread into his bloodstream.
“I received third and fourth degree burns all the way through the flesh into the muscle and tendon," he said.
University health services treated that, but Quinn’s doctors said there’s still other damage.
“I have two or three damaged nerves perhaps from the heat itself because of the burn. And there’s possible damage to a tendon because I’ve lost the full movement of my index finger,” Quinn added.
UNC police are investigating the attack as a hate crime, and the school will also be reporting it to federal officials as a hate crime.
The director of UNC’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer (LGBTQ) center said attacks like the one that happened to Quinn follow a pattern.
“If you look at the national data, often the case is that it’s a random thing, based on people’s appearance or on conversations overheard,” explained the LGBTQ’s Terri Phoenix.
Email
Facebook
Google
Twitter
Favorites
More
Advertisement