hate crime hits naropa?
Daily Camera:
A 21-year-old female student at Naropa University was badly beaten early Wednesday near downtown Boulder, and police are investigating whether she was attacked because of her sexual preference, because they suspect the assault was a hate crime.
The Boulder woman, whose name wasn't released, was assaulted by an unknown man before 3 a.m. near 13th Street and Canyon Boulevard, according to police. He attacked the woman after she rejected sexual advances from him and his friend by telling them she was gay, police said.
The woman was punched and kicked in the face and head, causing serious injuries, according to police. She told officers that her attacker's friend told him to stop but didn't intervene to help.
The victim has been released from the hospital and taken to a "safe space" where Naropa officials are taking care of her, said Blake Weber, executive director of Boulder Pride. Members of the nonprofit group spent much of Tuesday counseling the injured woman, Weber said during a Wednesday news conference.
Weber wouldn't discuss the woman's injuries, but she described them as "horrific."
"It's horrible what's happened," she told a crowd of reporters outside Boulder Pride, 2132 14th St.
According to police, the woman went to several University Hill house parties Tuesday before going to the Pearl Street Mall, where she met the two men outside Old Chicago.
"She didn't know them before meeting them that night," Cmdr. Greg Testa said.
After learning they were visiting from California and didn't have a place to stay, the woman offered up her couches and the men accepted, Testa said.
I can't offer any more comment here without learning more about what's happened myself. In the meantime, my heart goes out to that young woman and her family.
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