A man defecated on a gay pride flag in a tapas restaurant’s outdoor dining shed on the Upper West Side, police said over the weekend.
The NYPD Hate Crimes Task Force is looking for a man behind a disgusting act that took place in Manhattan.
Police say the incident took place on the morning of April 15, when a suspect entered a building on West 95th Street and defecated on a Pride flag.
The man is also said to have taken a second Pride flag and wiped his backside with it before running off on Amsterdam Avenue.
General Manager Nathan Nolen Edwards, 34, identifies as gay and said the restaurant where he’s worked for six years has “a very inclusive, largely LGBTQ+-identifying staff” that includes professional drag queens.
“It’s definitely a punch to the gut. We certainly haven’t experienced anything to this degree. A defecation on a pride flag is not the norm here.”
he said
The clip captured the man placing the rainbow banner on a chair, and then relieving himself on it. He then picks up a second Pride flag and uses it to wipe his backside, the video shows.
Cops are looking for the suspect and released video that shows him walking near the scene.
Owner Courtney Barroll, 63, said the restaurant she owns with her boyfriend has been displaying flags for years.
“Obviously we thought it was disgusting,” she said. “It was sad, it was disgusting. It angered me that people in this world have such hatred for others that they could do something so awful and so vile.”
She said the NYPD’s Hate Crimes Task Force has been working hard to find the culprit.
Barroll told her staff she’d put up even more flags now.
“I said, ‘Don’t worry, because for the two flags that he has taken from us, I will put 50 more up, and I’ll wallpaper the whole restaurant with them,’” she said. “They all burst out laughing, and said ‘We know you.’”
