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Video Shows Crowd Take Down Man After Homophobic Attack at Texas Airport

A crowd at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport rushed to the aid of a man after another man was hurling slurs at him.
Video by Andrew Kennedy

A crowd at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport rushed to the aid of a man last week when another man launched a homophobic tirade and attacked him at an airport gate.

Amateur video of the altercation shows the attacker, wearing a brown hooded sweatshirt, approach a man wearing a pink shirt at Gate C30 of the airport. The attacker appears to be harassing the man in pink and swats at him, possibly because the man in pink appeared to be filming him with a phone.

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Bystanders then accost the attacker, who turns and flips them off before walking toward the group, removing his jacket, and getting in the face of a man wearing a black cowboy hat, who asked the attacker why he was upset.

"Queers is what I'm upset about," the attacker said, motioning toward the man in the pink shirt. "This faggot right here."

After shouting a couple of other homophobic jabs, the attacker kicks and then throws a punch at the man in the pink shirt. A group of six bystanders — including the man in the pink shirt —  and an airport security officer forcefully take the man to the ground, where he makes racist comments to the two black DFW officers who were putting him in handcuffs.

"You want me to tell you the reason why I did it?" the attacker asks from his stomach with the two officers attached to his back. "Because this is America, that's why. The same reason you get to live to breathe to walk black."

Airport officials didn't respond calls for comment from VICE News about the identity of the attacker, and arrest records are not available for him. Several news reports claim that the man likely was under the influence of alcohol or drugs.